Church Of St Sampson

Church of St Sampson, Golant

A Grade I listed parish church standing on Church Hill. The building originated as a chapel annexed to the Priory at Tywardreath, first recorded in 1281. It was extensively rebuilt between about 1450 and 1500, then consecrated as a separate church in 1509. The structure underwent significant restoration in 1842, which included removal of the screen and roof repairs. The south porch was rebuilt or constructed in 1856 for Martha Rashleigh, bearing a limestone date plaque inscribed "Holiness unto the Lord MR MDCCCLVI". The tower and west end were restored by the architects Hine and Rogers in 1891, with this date marked on the cill of the south aisle window.

The exterior is built of slatestone rubble with granite quoins and dressings throughout. The tower is constructed of squared granite moorstone with granite dressings. The roofs are slate with crested ridge tiles along the nave and plain ridge tiles elsewhere.

The church follows a Perpendicular style plan comprising a nave and chancel in one build (probably largely dating from the early 15th century), with a later south aisle and south porch of one build with no visible joint. A late 15th-century west tower stands at the west end. The former priest's door in the north side of the chancel now serves as an entrance to the mid-19th-century north vestry.

The north elevation of the nave features three windows: two of four lights with square heads, nave-moulded surrounds, cusped lights and through mullions, and a smaller three-light window of similar design to the west. Between the two eastern windows stands a rubble buttress with pitched slate top; between the two western windows is an early 20th-century brick flue. The north vestry has a gable end facing north, pierced by a pointed arched window with a two-light casement featuring Y tracery in wood.

The chancel's north side has one four-light window set high in the wall, consistent with the nave. The east gable end displays a tall 15th-century four-centred arched window of four lights with cusped heads and upper Y tracery, its hood mould terminating in square stops.

The south aisle extends across five bays, with the porch occupying the second bay from the west. Three four-light windows face south, matching those on the nave's north side, though some mullions were replaced in the 19th century. To the west of these is a two-light window in Pentewan stone with trefoil-headed lights, likely a replacement from the 1891 restoration. The west end of the aisle contains a tall four-centred arched three-light window with the central light taller than its neighbours, cusped lights, upper tracery and hood mould, probably also of late 19th-century date. The east end of the aisle retains a 15th-century granite window of four lights with four-centred arch, cusped lights with upper Y tracery and hood mould.

The gabled south porch has raised coped verges and a cross finial. The four-centred arched outer doorway features roll mouldings and trefoils in the spandrels with a square hood mould. To the left side, a roughly hewn segmental granite archway provides access to the holy well. Inside, the porch has a granite floor and a plain wagon roof with moulded ribs, ceiled over. The inner doorway is a tall four-centred arch with roll mouldings, and the door itself has a raised studded rim and battens, possibly remade in 1856.

The two-stage tower lacks a plinth and has small weathered buttresses at the junction with the south aisle and nave. The first stage displays a moulded string course with corner pilasters topped with mouldings serving as vestigial buttresses. Above the string course rises an embattled parapet, rebuilt in the late 19th century. A low west door with four-centred arch and chamfering opens beneath a three-light window rebuilt in the late 19th century with cusped lights, upper tracery, four-centred arch and hood mould with relieving arch. The second stage has three-light bell-openings to each side with cusped lights and upper tracery, four-centred arches, hood moulds and slate louvres. To the south sits a rectangular chamfered lancet below the bell-opening.

Interior

Walls are plastered and the floor is of granite. The nave, chancel and south aisle all retain 15th-century wagon roofs. The nave and chancel roof extends across seventeen bays, unceiled, with moulded ribs and carved bosses; parts of the 15th-century structure remain, though much was renewed in the 19th century. The wall-plates were incorrectly replaced in the early 19th-century restoration. A seven-bay arcade separates the nave and chancel from the south aisle, featuring four-centred arches with two orders of mouldings. The piers are of Pevsner A-type with ring capitals; two piers and their arches at the east end are granite, while the remainder are Pentewan stone. The north side of the chancel has a three-centred arched hollow-chamfered doorway within a flat-headed surround with wave moulding, fitted with an 18th-century door bearing strap hinges. The south aisle roof spans seventeen bays, is ceiled, and has moulded ribs and bosses with more wall-plate surviving than in the nave. A Tudor arch crowns the south doorway. Granite steps ascend to the tower arch, a tall four-centred arch with impost mouldings, now fitted with a 19th-century wooden screen. The west door is surmounted by a heavy flat granite lintel that serves as the cill for the west window.

The octagonal granite font in the south aisle appears to be 19th-century. The pulpit in the nave is constructed from late 15th- or early 16th-century bench ends, as are the reading desk and sanctuary chair. An 18th-century reredos with panelling and a communion rail with turned balusters survives. A carved stone mask corbel appears in the south aisle. The nave contains a painted board Royal coat of arms of James II, dated 1685. Panelled pews of 1842 line the nave and south aisle.

Monuments include an early 18th-century slate tablet in the nave with an incised border and central panel bearing verses, commemorating Edmund Constable, 1716. The south aisle contains a marble sarcophagus on a slate ground with pediment and heraldic shield, erected for Harriot Graham, 1833.

The chancel's north window retains fragments of late 15th-century stained glass believed to depict St Sampson and St Anthony. The chancel's east window dates to 1898, and the south aisle's east window to 1907. Other windows contain later stained glass and lattice glazing.