Church Of St Probus

Church of St Probus and St Grace

This is a parish church with records dating back to 1300 (Exeter Register). The present building is 15th and 16th century, substantially restored by G.E. Street in 1850 and extended by St Aubyn in 1904. The structure is built of shale rubble with granite quoins, dressings, buttresses and ashlar to the tower, with Delabole slate roofs and granite coped gables.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles with porches, and a south transept. The north wall is arranged in seven bays with a gable porch to the second bay from the west, featuring a granite 4-centred arched doorframe. The other bays have 15th-century Perpendicular granite 3-light mullions with freestone tracery and 19th-century granite ashlar buttresses between them. The east wall displays three Perpendicular-style windows under gables surmounted by cross finials. The chancel gable was rebuilt in 1850, incorporating many ancient carved fragments.

The south aisle gable dates to 1904, as does the south transept with a boiler room beneath. The south wall retains a 15th-century set-back buttress to the left and a 15th-century window similar to those in the north wall. The south porch features a 4-centred doorway and relief carving dated 1637 and 1768 in a panel to the gable, two 15th-century windows, buttresses, a blind bay, transept window and a pointed arched door from 1904 to the left.

The west tower is the tallest and most ornate medieval tower in Cornwall. It was begun circa 1523 and rises in three stages. The west tower doorway is 4-centred with a hoodmould that becomes the second string of a quatrefoil-decorated plinth. Fox and hound motifs enrich the string to the north. Three canopied niches with engaged crocketed pinnacles embellish the north and south lower stages. The second stage has single Perpendicular bell openings with pierced granite screens between mullions and tracery, while the third stage has double bell openings with a range of eight smaller ones under the upper string on each side. Slightly set-back buttresses are surmounted by crocketed pinnacles with engaged corner pinnacles beneath. Further pinnacles sit midway along the crenellated parapet. The flanking north and south aisles have 15th-century gable windows.

The lofty interior features granite wave-moulded between sheets standard type B piers (Pevsner classification) with shields on capitals and 4-centred arcades of seven bays to north and south of the nave. Those between the chancel and south aisle are probably from 1904. A 16th-century oak panelled screen divides the nave from the tower. Sixteenth-century oak bench ends with words of old prayer painted in English (post-Reformation) now form the base of the rood screen. Further reused oak panels appear in the choir stalls, parclose screen between the chancel and north aisle.

The mosaic floor, east window and panelled wagon roof in the chancel are probably from 1850. The north aisle west window contains glass memorial to Robert Lampen, a former vicar, dated 1853. A five-light 19th-century east window contains glass to the Hawkins family of Trewithen. A step newel stair to the roof loft is situated in the north wall with a 15th-century or later moulded wagon roof over it and extending to north and south porches. The nave has a 19th-century scissor-braced roof. The south aisle has a 19th-century arched-braced collar roof and a 1904 barrel roof to the east end beyond the screen. The 15th-century windows have chamfered rear arches. The tower has a tall arch with panelled responds and intrados, with a newel stair in the north-east corner.

Interior fittings include a brass memorial of 1514 in the floor of the south aisle to John and Cecilia Wolvedon of Golden Manor, a granite Norman piscina in the sanctuary, a piscina in the south wall near the screen, and a memorial of 1766 on the right to Thomas Hawkins featuring a seated female figure holding a medallion with an angel above. The octagonal font dates to 1845 and is inscribed to Sarah, wife of William Stackhouse. Bench pews are from the church restoration of 1851. The church also contains a letter from Charles Rex of 1643 and a James II Coat of Arms from 1685.