Church Of Saint Mylor

Church of Saint Mylor

Parish church. Incorporating Norman work and possibly 12th-century walling, but predominantly 15th century with 19th-century re-roofing. Built of local shale rubble with granite quoins and copings; dressed coarsed granite to the porch and bell turret with additional granite and Caen stone dressings. Scantle slate roofs, some with coped gable ends.

The church comprises a 12th-century nave and chancel under one roof with a 15th-century bell turret over the west gable, a 12th-century north transept, a 15th-century north rood stair turret, a 15th-century south aisle with chapel (not as long or wide as the nave and chancel), and a 15th-century south porch. A south transept and small 19th-century sacristy occupy the space between. The church was probably originally cruciform in the 12th century, but the south transept and wall were removed and replaced by a Caen stone arcade with substantial rebuilding of the north and east walls in the 15th century. Further alterations followed, including re-roofing, resetting of windows and some rebuilding, with sacristy extension added around 1870.

The west end displays a coped gable end of the nave to the left and a coped gable end of the south aisle set back to the right. The west gable of the nave has an old round-headed freestone doorway in the Norman style, incorporating original 12th-century carved bases to the outer jambs, roll-moulding to the architrave, nook shafts to the jambs and leaf carving to the tympanum. Above is a 15th-century three-light Caen stone Perpendicular window, surmounted by a large square embattled turret with 15th-century two-light Perpendicular windows to each side, all with relieving arches. The aisle gable has a 15th-century Caen stone late Perpendicular three-light window with a granite sill and a cross finial over the gable.

The north wall includes the transept to the left of middle, with a gable-ended rood stair turret in the angle to its left, the north wall of the chancel to the far left and the north wall of the nave to the right of the transept. The nave wall, partly rebuilt in the 15th century, retains a fine Norman doorway incorporating much original work: chevron architrave with roll and ball mouldings, nook shafts to the outer jambs, moulded and enriched round-headed arch and flared patee-formee cross to the tympanum. To left and right are 19th-century windows in the Norman style. The walling to the far right is possibly 12th century. The north transept, mostly rebuilt in the 15th century, has a 15th-century granite three-light Perpendicular window with hoodmould to the north gable end.

The east wall, mostly rebuilt in the 19th century, has a tall 19th-century cusped single-light granite window to the left, a pointed 19th-century granite doorway to the right, and a pointed 19th-century niche above. The stair turret has an original small 15th-century two-light window cut from a single piece of stone. The north wall of the chancel has a late 15th-century three-light Caen stone Perpendicular window with a granite sill. The east wall displays a gable end of the south aisle set back to the left and the gable end of the chancel to the right, each with a 15th-century four-light Perpendicular window.

The south wall comprises a window to the left, the porch, sacristy, south transept with gable window, and a window to the aisle chapel to the right of the transept. The sacristy has a tall single-light cusped granite window; other south windows are similar to those at the west gable of the aisle and north wall of the chancel. The south chancel window retains old wooden casements and crown glass. To the left of this window is a 15th-century Caen stone doorway with a basket arch. The porch doorway, dating to circa late 15th or early 16th century, is a very fine example of late Perpendicular work, featuring panelled trefoil-headed octagonal jambs with moulded bases and moulded and carved capitals, and a round-headed chamfered ordered arch with ogee-arched inner tracery. In the gable over the doorway is a further flared cross, possibly part of a Norman doorway tympanum but re-sited. A 15th-century moulded inner doorway, also of Caen stone, has a basket arch and square-headed hoodmould. To the right of the doorway, set within the east wall of the porch, is a round-head stoup.

The interior contains a fine four-bay Caen stone arcade between the nave and south aisle, and between the chancel and south aisle chapel. The east and west respond piers and moulded bases are of granite. The arcade employs Standard A piers (in Pevsner's classification) with moulded capitals and moulded, nearly round arches. Two rood doorways are positioned high up in the north wall and in the pier opposite between the nave and chancel. A squint at the east end of the arcade has a piscina within on an octagonal shaft. An aumbry is set into the east wall of the aisle chapel. The north wall of the north transept contains two niches incorporating Norman fragments.

The roof structures are of pitch pine with arch bracing, replacing around 1870 the original oak waggon roofs. Several windows, including the north and east windows of the chancel, contain 19th-century coloured glass. The north window commemorates Captain Downey, lost in H.M.S. Brisris in 1838, and Captain William Lure, who died in 1874.

Fittings include a medieval font of circa late 15th or early 16th-century date, a rood screen base also of circa late 15th or early 16th century, and a 16th-century pulpit. There is also a painted letter near the south door from Charles I at Sudely Castle, a priest's chair of reused medieval fragments, painted Royal Arms of Queen Anne in the south transept, old oak parish stocks in the porch, and simple 19th-century pitch pine pews.

The font has an octagonal granite bowl, possibly 15th century, over a circa 13th-century turned base. The reassembled oak carved panelled rood screen base is early Renaissance in style with vestiges of original paint surviving. Two 16th-century oak bench ends are adjoined and incorporated into the fronts of the choir stalls. The oak pulpit features carved rails, stiles, muntins and panels with a moulded cornice.

Monuments include a fine marble monument in the south-east corner of the aisle chapel to Francis Trefusis, 1680, with a Latin inscription within a bolection-moulded frame flanked by Corinthian columns on square bases and supporting a dentilled cornice to a segmental pediment with bead-and-reel and acanthus-enriched cornice enclosing a black tympanum, against which and rising above is a painted achievement. The whole stands on a shelf with a moulded cornice supported by two carved angles, and on the shelf before the aedicule stands a carved cavalier kneeling before a carved lectern.

Further wall monuments in the south transept include a fine monument of 1695 to Richard Bonython of Carclew, who died aged 45, and his wife Honor, given by their daughter Jane who married Samuel Kempe of Penryn (the Bonythons held Carclew from 1422 to 1749). The inscription is framed by fluted pilasters standing on a shelf supported by consoles over a shaped base with carved cherub, and surmounted by a broken entablature and achievements flanking an urn. A square monument with shaped base features an achievement and egg-and-dart and acanthus border framing an inscription to Samuel Humphry Pellew of Treverry, died 1821 aged 89, and his wife Jane and daughter Jane. A simple tapered and pyramidal-headed monument over a shaped base commemorates Samuel Humphry Pellew, died 1854 aged 61. A pointed-arched slab over corbels with central urn commemorates Harriet Guion, died at Wood Cottage 1806 aged 27. An oval medallion over a legged chest with urns commemorates Edward Bayntum of Yescombe, who 'lost his life ably defending his ship' in 1803 aged 38.

According to tradition preserved in the Church Guide, Mylor church has an ancient history beginning with the martyr Mylor, who according to tradition was martyred here in A.D. 411.