Church Of St Ivo

A parish church consecrated in 1338, serving as the sister church to South Hill. The building comprises a nave, north transept, and chancel dating from the time of consecration, with a south aisle and south porch added in the late 15th century, and a tower constructed in the 16th century through the generosity of Henry Trecarrel of Lezant. The church was restored in 1883 by Medley Fulford.

The nave, chancel, and north transept are constructed of rubblestone, while the tower, south aisle, and south porch are built of granite ashlar. Slate roofs cover the building, with the nave and chancel forming a continuous roof that projects beyond the south aisle.

The west tower rises in two stages with set-back buttresses supporting eight subsidiary pinnacles flanking four main pinnacles positioned over the corners, all rising to a battlemented parapet. A moulded plinth runs around the tower base. The west door is fashioned from polyphant stone with a four-centred arch bearing a heavy roll mould decorated with quatrefoils and mouchettes in the spandrels beneath a hood mould and labels. The door itself is a 19th-century plank door with elaborate strap hinges. A 19th-century west window of three lights features Perpendicular tracery beneath a four-centred arch with hood and labels, occupying the original opening. The belfry contains a three-light opening beneath a four-centred arch.

On the north wall of the nave are two two-light windows in freestone with two-centred arches topped by hoods and labels. A north door with elaborate moulded jambs and a two-centred arch with run-out stops is positioned between the windows, though it is now blocked. A 19th-century buttress stands between the north door and west window.

The north transept features a three-light window to the north with Decorated tracery, its central roundel containing a cusped cinquefoil. The transept is lit by additional Decorated three-light windows with raised central lights.

The chancel windows include a north window with renewed Decorated tracery of two lights in the original two-centred arched opening, matched by a similar south window. The east window is restored and comprises five lights of Decorated style, its central roundel descending below the central light—a design echoing features at Exeter Cathedral's choir (circa 1288-1309) and its west window (circa 1346-1375). A south chancel door with pointed trefoils and an outer four-centred arch with hood and labels may be contemporary with the south aisle.

The south aisle is lit by a four-light Perpendicular east window beneath a four-centred arch with hood and labels, and by four identical three-light Perpendicular windows in the south wall, separated by stepped buttresses. These closely resemble the windows at the Church of St Mary, Callington.

The south porch is gabled with a four-centred arch bearing a roll mould, rectangular hood, and labels with carved spandrels. A sundial above is inscribed with the date 1655 and the words "Quotidie Morior". The south door sits within a rectangular surround with a heavy roll mould to its four-centred arch and Decorated spandrels. The remains of a holy water stoup with an ogee cusped head are visible to the right.

The interior features late 15th-century waggon roofs throughout. The nave roof has moulded ribs and carved bosses, with carved timber wall plates and moulded stone plates beneath. The chancel roof has a central longitudinal moulded rib. The north transept preserves a sealed waggon roof with carved bosses, while the south aisle also features a waggon roof with carved ribs, bosses, and wall plate.

A five-bay south arcade comprises segmental moulded arches supported on Type A moulded piers with tall moulded bases and elaborately moulded capitals. The tower arch projects from moulded corbelled brackets and features a segmental moulded arch with an outer relieving arch. The north transept arch, dating from the 1330s, is pointed with mouldings on the arch dying out into the jambs, comparable to the Church of Sampson at South Hill.

The chancel sedilia, dating to the 1340s, have two-centred arches with trefoils in the spandrels, decorated with carved bulbous foliage. A simple piscina to the right of the altar features an ogee arch with cusping. Another piscina from the 1330s is located in the east wall of the north transept. The north wall of the north transept contains a Decorated tomb recess from the 1330s with an ogee cusped arch and bulbous finial above. Decorated niches with nodding ogee arches positioned diagonally and bulbous crocketted finials are set on the inner side of the east window.

The furnishings include a 19th-century oak pulpit from around 1700, octagonal in plan with carved panels and a moulded cornice, though the base is later. An octagonal tester of similar date and design stands nearby. A 17th-century oak chair is preserved in the chancel. The octagonal granite font has a stem dating from the 14th century.

19th-century Commandment boards displaying the Lord's Prayer and the Creed occupy the west end of the nave. A painted plaster coat of arms of Charles II, dated 1660, with strap work decoration, adorns the north wall of the nave.

The monuments include a classical memorial to John Lyne (died 1791), rector of the parish, created by Isbell and positioned on the north side of the chancel. To its west lies a slate ledger stone in memory of John Saltren (died 1695) with central heraldic arms bearing a lion rampant. Other ledger stones commemorate Robert Soby (1741), the son of Thomas Dodson of May (died 1669), William Leane (1700), John Saltren (1663), and John Wrey (1603). Glass in the east window was given in memory of Archdeacon Hobhouse, and brass plaques to the Hobhouse family are mounted in the church. A slate memorial to the Wrey family dated 1597 was transferred to Tawstock in 1924.