Church Of St Newlyna

Church of St Newlyna

This is an Anglican parish church, principally dating from the late 12th to mid 13th centuries, with the building rededicated in September 1259. Major work was undertaken in the late 14th to early 15th centuries, and the church was reroofed around 1846 and restored in 1883 by J.P. Seddon.

The church is built of local shaley killas stone, some iron stained, with granite dressings to doors and windows. Gritstone quoins are present on the south aisle chapel. The roofs are covered in blue slate with clay crested red ridge tiles.

The plan comprises a north transept with an early base to its north and east walls said to be late 12th century, a nave, chancel, and upper transept walls of mid 13th century date without plinth. A south aisle was added in the 15th century, along with a contemporary porch and west tower to the nave. The aisle was subsequently extended eastwards following the addition of a south chapel—the Tresillian chapel—beneath which lies the Arundell vault. The nave has opposed entrances in its second bay.

The south porch is crenellated and features a tall open outer doorway with an arch in a square outer moulded frame and quatrefoils in the spandrels, with a label above. A door to a stair in the north-west corner of the porch leads to an unbuilt parvise. An internal doorway of 15th-century date has a trefoiled niche over it. A sundial with an iron gnomon is positioned over the outer door.

Windows are varied in date. The north transept west window is a 13th-century lancet; all other windows are 15th century, generally with three-light panelled tracery, though the north transept and south chapel have four-light windows. The chancel east window is 19th century. The east chapel has a two-light window with quatrefoil heads.

The west tower consists of three stages with set-back buttresses, though the third stage has clasping buttresses rising to square conical finials. A square stair tower occupies the north-east angle. The tower features a west door with three-light panel tracery above it, repeated at the bell stage. The gables of the south aisle and chapel have crocketed finials. A notable fig tree, which is said to have magical properties, grows from the south wall of the aisle at its junction with the chapel.

Interior

The nave has plastered walls and a partly flagged floor. A barrel-vaulted open rafter roof of 19th-century date carries reused 15th-century carved bosses at the purlin and ridge intersections. A granite arcade of six bays opens to the south aisle, with four attached shafts separated by wave mouldings, moulded capitals, and depressed four-centred arches. An identical two-bay opening connects to the north transept. The tower arch is corbelled with a wide reserved ovolo of an earlier type. Glass of 1896 is present in the north-west window.

The south aisle has a lower barrel vault, also with reused bosses. A wide opening with similar responds opens to the south chapel. The chapel itself has a similar roof and reveal shafts to its south window, and contains a double piscina. The capitals and arches are lower than those of the nave. A panelled and painted vaulted ceiling is present, together with a recess containing wood-panelled sedilia and a table of 19th-century date.

The east aisle chapel has an east window with reveal shafts and a large cinquefoil piscina in its east wall.

The north transept, formerly the Cargoll Chapel under the patronage of the bishopric of Exeter, has a 15th-century open barrel-vaulted roof with leaf-carved principal rafters, purlins, collar purlins, and wall plates. Reveal shafts face the north window.

Fittings

A 12th-century font is of Bodmin type limestone with a bowl on a short column with a spurred base. The bowl is carved with intertwining three-strand floral scrolls and four grotesque quadrupeds. Four angel heads are corbelled from the rim, supported by 19th-century verde antico shafts.

A 19th-century oak screen by Seddon is an accomplished work spanning the nave and aisle in ten bays of panelled tracery with ribbed vaulting supporting an elaborately carved rood loft. A similar screen between the chancel and south aisle chapel incorporates painted panels from an original medieval screen. A 19th-century oak pulpit, octagonal in form and accessible from an adapted former rood loft stair, is present. Fine carved bench-ends with tracery and signs of the Passion, along with arms, furnish the pews to the east of the nave; those towards the east nave feature crouching beast terminals and were extended and completed in 1883.

Monuments

In the south aisle is a simple white marble tablet on grey, to the Reverend Henry Pooley, died 1821. The south chapel contains a fine monument of 1691 in white and grey marbles, comprising an inscribed tablet flanked by Ionic columns with a curtain drawn aside and falling from a broken pediment containing a marble bust. The arms of Arundell quartering Trerice and the arms of Acland in an escutcheon of pretence are displayed, with vigorous lion supporters on the apron. The inscription in Latin commemorates Margaret Arundell. Also in the chapel is a helmet suspended over an arch, formerly belonging to Sir John Arundell, who held Pendennis Castle for Charles I in 1646.

A large wood and plaster carved royal arms of Charles I within a timber frame is mounted on the north wall. In the nave stands an eroded lantern cross head in grey killas stone bearing a crucifixion scene on one face and on the reverse a seated figure of a decapitated person, probably St. Newlyna.

The Reverend Richard Polwhele, scholar and antiquary, held the living from 1821 to 1838 and published Traditions and Recollections (1826) and Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (1831) during his tenure.