Church Of Saint Anthony

Church of Saint Anthony

Parish church, now in private use, rededicated in 1259 with a small establishment by Plympton Priory, an Augustinian house. The building is substantially 13th century, with major 19th-century reconstruction. The surviving north transept is original; the nave and south aisle were mostly rebuilt in 1850, and the chancel, which had been demolished at the Dissolution, was completely rebuilt in 1850. The church is constructed in slatestone with granite and freestone dressings, beneath dry Delabole slate roofs with gable ends.

The building is a rare survival in Cornwall of a cruciform plan, comprising nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a tower over the crossing. The south wall of the nave contains a Norman doorway, possibly originally from Plympton Priory. This doorway is of four orders with keeled nook shafts supporting scalloped capitals, the middle two round arches of cusps enclosing stylised foliage carving, a chevron outer order and carved heads, with an Agnus Dei positioned off-centre to the left. A reset 13th-century freestone lancet lies to the right of the doorway. All other windows are 19th-century insertions of granite in Early English style with coloured glass: two-light and five-light windows to the nave, and a three-light window to the north wall. The chancel has a two-light window with quatrefoil and flanking single lancets to the middle of the south wall, a three-light window to the east gable, two single lancets in the north wall, and near the junction with the tower a reused 17th-century doorway with an elliptical arch. The north transept displays a three-light window in 13th-century walling to the east wall and a rose window to the north gable, positioned above where the north transept adjoins Place Manor. The south aisle has three-light windows to each wall. The tower walling is 13th-century up to the apex level of adjoining roofs; above this the wall was rebuilt in the 19th century with a quatrefoil ventilator under the eaves on each side. A dry-slated broach spire with four Gothic lucarnes and leaded angles crowns the tower.

The interior preserves an 1850s roof structure throughout with arched bracing springing from corbels and a cornice with dog-tooth carving. The 13th-century pointed and ordered freestone lower arches with stiff-leaf capitals and carved heads are visible at the north and south transept tower arch capitals. Engaged shafts rise from the responds of the nave and chancel. 13th-century trefoil-headed freestone niches appear in the east walls of both north and south aisles; the niches feature carved head corbels. The east and west windows of the south aisle retain retooled 13th-century freestone rear arches and jambs with engaged shafts. Further surviving 13th-century jambs are present at the east window of the north aisle. 19th-century granite rear arches and nook-shafts were inserted at the east chancel window and north nave window. A round-headed doorway in the north wall of the nave provides a link to Place Manor.

Interior fittings include an octagonal 19th-century granite font, benches with carved ends and scrolled armrests, a Spry family pew in the north aisle, an octagonal pulpit with tapered base and cast-iron stair baluster in the north-east corner of the tower, and a single bell suspended in the middle of the tower spire. The wall bears the Spry family motto: "Soyez sage et simple!"

The north transept contains a significant collection of Spry family monuments. These include a fine Baroque Ionic aedicule with semi-circular pediment on a cartouche with lion's-head brackets and an oval inscription with angel-head and acanthus border, commemorating Arthur Spry (died 1685) and his wife Mary (died 1656). A large white marble monument in Tudor style comprises a chest and frame around a Classical group of male and female mourners flanking an inscribed pedestal with the Spry arms above a trophy, recording Thomas Spry, Admiral of the Red (died 1828) and his wife Anna Maria (died 1835). Additional wall tablets include one with an angel holding a sword against a tapered background for Richard Spry and his wife Mary; one featuring a ship of the line and Britannia for Sir Richard Spry, Knight, Rear Admiral of the White (died 1775) by Westmacott; a simple monument to George Spry of Golden (died 1658) with cartouche and coat of arms; and a wall tablet to Lucice Hele (died 1670).