Church Of St Uda

Church of St Uda, St Tudy

A parish church dedicated to St Uda with Norman origins, evidenced by a surviving Norman font and a pre-Norman coped stone discovered in the churchyard. The main structure was expanded in the 15th century with the addition of a six-bay south aisle and three-bay north aisle, probably built at the same time as the west tower. The south porch was added shortly after. The church underwent restoration in 1873–74 by J. P. St Aubyn, with further repairs to the tower in 1888 and alterations to the sanctuary in 1932.

The walls are constructed of slatestone rubble, with the north wall of the nave and east wall of the chancel of slatestone rubble, while the north aisle is of roughly coursed slatestone and the south aisle of roughly coursed ashlar slatestone with moulded base and wall plate. The south porch is of granite ashlar with slate roofs throughout.

The exterior features a tall unbuttressed west tower of three stages with a battlemented parapet and crocketted finials. An integral stair occupies the north-west corner. The west door has a four-centred granite moulded arch with hood mould and a 19th-century door. A circa 15th-century west window, partly restored, sits above. The belfry openings are three-light with slate louvers. The nave, north and south aisles are lit by three-light Perpendicular tracery windows, partly restored in the late 19th century. A blocked 15th-century north door with four-centred moulded arch and rood-loft projection serves the north aisle. The north aisle has a west window with 19th-century Perpendicular tracery, while the chancel has a four-light window with 15th-century surround and tracery, the mullion renewed in the 20th century. Rainwater hoppers are dated 1829. The south porch has a two-centred circa 15th-century arch with hood mould.

The interior walls are unplastered, with the nave and chancel unified in one space. A four-centred tower arch of ashlar granite marks the transition. The nave, north and south aisles retain their original 15th-century waggon roofs with moulded ribs, carved wall plates and bosses; the north aisle's roof features carved ribs. The chancel roof dates to circa the 19th century. The arcades feature six bays in the south aisle and three bays in the north aisle, with type A (Pevsner) piers, moulded capitals and bases, and four-centred granite moulded arches. Late 19th and 20th-century furnishings include a pulpit and screens. A piscina is present.

The Norman font is of table-top type, with a square bowl featuring chamfered corners and blind arcading on the sides. The round shaft is partly restored with a renewed base. The rood-loft stair remains intact. A royal coat of arms hangs above the south door, and two funeral hatchments displaying heraldic arms are mounted in the south aisle: one for Michell and Hervey impaled, the other for Sarel and Hervey.

A pre-Norman coped stone, resembling a coffin lid with a hog-back shaped top carved with interlacing and foliage scrolls and blind arcading on the sides, is displayed in the south porch.

Memorials within the church include a 1597 monument to Humfridi Nicholl with effigies of parents and children in shallow relief and inscriptions in Latin and English; an 1658 marble and stone memorial to Antony Nicholl, erected in 1681 by his wife Amy; a granite stone to Margery Lower (1686); a memorial to Phillippa Silly of Trevelver (1669), daughter of Humphry Nicholl; a memorial with four figures in shallow relief, probably commemorating Alice, wife of William Reskymer, who died circa 1563–64; and 19th and 20th-century memorials to the Onslow family. An exterior headstone to Charles Bligh (1770) of Tinten has been resited on the south aisle. Individual photographs of parish men who served in the forces during the First World War are also preserved.

The chancel's east window commemorates John P. and E. A. Moyse-Magor (1879) of Lamellen. Remains of earlier glass survive in the top lights of the east windows.