Church Of St Endelienta

Church of St Endelienta

A parish and collegiate church of uncertain foundation date, reconstituted in 1265 and recorded by 1288 as comprising four prebendaries. This is the sole surviving collegiate church in Cornwall, having escaped dissolution under the Chantry Act of 1545. The building dates from the early 15th century, with the west tower added in the later 15th century. It underwent restoration in the mid-19th century and again in 1937-8.

The church is constructed of local materials: the unbuttressed west tower is built of large ashlar blocks of Lundy granite with moulded plinth and strings, while the aisles employ smaller blocks of roughly coursed local slatestone and granite. The chancel is of dressed slatestone and granite. A moulded plinth runs along the south aisle, south porch, chancel and north aisle. The building is roofed with rag slate, the chancel roof being slightly lower than that of the nave.

The plan comprises a five-bay nave with north and south aisles, a projecting chancel, a west tower and a south porch. Both aisles contain four 15th-century Perpendicular windows set in four-centred arches with hoodmoulds and partly renewed mullions. The windows in the north aisle are shorter than those in the south, as the ground rises northward. A rood loft projection adjoins the north aisle toward its east end, with a four-light window above it. A late 19th or 20th-century north door is positioned near the west end. The east windows of both aisles feature four-light Perpendicular tracery within moulded basket arches, with evidence of masonry rebuilding visible in the south aisle.

The chancel contains a south door with a chamfered segmental arch, run-out stops and hoodmould, now partly blocked by the south aisle. A five-light east window displays tall cusped lights within a moulded basket arch. The unbuttressed west tower rises through three stages with a band of quatrefoils at its base, moulded plinth and strings, and a battlemented parapet bearing octagonal turrets with ball finials. The west door has a pointed four-centred arch with heavy roll-mould, incised spandrels and hoodmould, and is hung with a plank door with cover moulds. A three-light west window sits above, probably remodelled, with four-centred arch and uncusped tracery. A narrow segmental-headed light appears above this, and the belfry contains two-light openings with crude segmental-headed lights and slate louvers. The gabled south porch features a four-centred moulded arch with moulded jambs rebated for a door on both inner and outer faces, with double plank doors. Above stands a sundial dated 1826 in memory of Jonathan George and Digory Gray, churchwardens. A south door to the south aisle is set in a three-centred arch with deep cavetto moulded arch and jambs ornamented with fleurons in relief and unusual stops.

The building is notable for its fine circa-15th-century waggon roofs to the nave, chancel, north and south aisles and porch. These were reportedly dismantled and re-erected during the 1937 restoration. A principal rafter dated 1675 was discovered during restoration, indicating earlier 17th-century repairs. The nave roof features carved ribs with two plain ribs between, five carved longitudinal ribs and partly restored carved wall plates. The chancel has moulded ribs and carved wall plates. The north aisle displays carved ribs with three plain ribs between and three carved longitudinal ribs; the south aisle has moulded longitudinal and transverse ribs, with carved wall and arcade plates in both. Carved bosses remain in the waggon roofs, with three surviving in the nave, five in the north aisle and most of those in the south aisle intact. Five ancient carved angels occupy the base of ribs; the remainder were carved in Exeter and by a local joiner between approximately 1900 and the 1930s, with several being dated and inscribed.

The north and south aisles contain five-bay arcades with Type A granite piers (after Pevsner), moulded bases and carved capitals of differing patterns, with those in the south aisle partly replaced. The arcade arches are four-centred and moulded. The tower arch features a moulded four-centred arch.

The furnishings include circa-15th-century carved bench ends in the nave, some bearing symbols of the crucifixion and one displaying the arms of Roscarrock impaling Granville of Stowe. The benches themselves are 20th-century. The north and south aisles contain 20th-century benches with bench ends carved locally by Trelights. Seventeenth-century chairs occupy the south aisle and chancel, together with a circa-17th-century bench in the south aisle featuring moulded and carved panels and a renewed seat.

The south aisle contains an altar tomb or the lower part of a shrine to St Endelienta dating from circa 1400, attributed to the Master of St Endellion. It is fashioned from Catacleuse stone and is rectangular with deeply recessed niches bearing flat ogee cusped arches supported on colonettes, with a band of quatrefoils below. A holy water stoup near the south door, also of Catacleuse stone and attributed to the same hand, is carved with the arms of Roscarrock, Chenduit or Cheney and Pentire. The south aisle contains a piscina with an ogee cusped head; another piscina in the chancel features a segmental chamfered head. The north aisle, known as the Roscarrock aisle, retains intact rood loft stairs and a square aumbry. A 12th-century font comprises a deep round bowl, thick round shaft and octagonal base; its cover is a memorial from 1914-1919. The pulpit was reworked from parts of a 17th-century altar rail and a bench end, probably during the 1937 restoration.

Memorials include a 16th-century ledger stone of John Roscarrock in the north aisle with marginal inscription and relief cross. The north wall bears memorials to Samuel Billing of Port Isaac (1839), William Bate (1856) and William Hocken (1778). The south aisle displays 19th-century memorials to the Gray family, with several notable ledger stones on the floor including those of Thomas and Mary Broad (1753 and 1758), Mary Peter who died of smallpox in 1758, John Hamley of Trefreke (1720), Henry Darle of North Hill (1776), and several members of the Lang family with heraldic arms. A ledger stone at the west end bears indents for brasses. The chancel contains a memorial to the Philip family by Caffin and Co (1876) and further 19th-century memorials to the Trevan family. A bronze plaque on the west wall of the south aisle, dated 1903 and signed H. Radoaernadri, depicts Joy in Heaven over a repentant sinner.

A fragment of wall painting survives at the west end of the north aisle. Eighteenth-century ringers' rhymes with pictures of ringers are displayed in the belfry, though these were not inspected for this listing. The bells were recast in 1734 and 1952. In 1950 the College of Heralds granted the foundation a coat of arms.

The collegiate church possesses an interesting history, and the fabric is of good quality, distinguished by its complete waggon roofs, fine altar tomb and holy water stoup.