Parish Church Of St Anne

Parish church of St Anne at Whitstone. The church comprises a chancel, nave, west tower, north and south aisles, and south porch. The base of the tower dates to the 13th century, with the upper stages of the tower and the arcades rebuilt in the 15th century. The chancel and porch were substantially rebuilt in 1882 by Samuel Hooper of Hatherleigh, and the interior is largely of this date.

The tower masonry is patched slatestone rubble. The north aisle is built of dressed polyphant and granite on a slatestone rubble plinth, with upper masonry that appears renewed. The south aisle and chancel are constructed of slatestone and polyphant rubble. Granite dressings are used throughout, with window tracery largely renewed in Bath stone. The roofs are of Delabole slate.

The chancel contains a four-light granite Perpendicular east window with rustic cutting to the tracery. The three-stage west tower is unbuttressed and battlemented, with granite strings. A partially projecting, battlemented, rectangular north-east stair turret diminishes in width at the belfry stage, rising above the tower battlements with a higher north-east pinnacle. The west door of the tower has a round-headed, chamfered granite arch. The three-light granite Perpendicular west window is positioned below the west belfry opening, which contains three cusped lights below two quatrefoils with a hood mould and label stops. The north and south belfry openings are two-light granite features below dripledges and relieving arches. Tower pinnacles are finished with rounded finials.

The north and south arcades comprise five bays with granite piers of conventional Perpendicular type, moulded capitals carrying shallow-moulded arches. The tower arch is slightly pointed and unmoulded. Nave walls are plastered, with spandrel masonry to the arcade cemented over.

The north and south aisles have granite jambs, hood-moulds and label stops to their windows. The north aisle windows feature 1882 reticulated tracery in Bath stone. The north aisle east window is three-light with 1882 tracery including a quatrefoil in the rounded head. The south aisle east window follows the same design, with similar tracery repeated in alternate windows. Other south aisle windows are three-light Perpendicular-style features of the 19th century. One two-light window in the south aisle is in Decorated style in Hatherleigh stone. The north door has a shallow-moulded, ogee-headed granite arch. A four-centred, shallow-moulded priests' door is located in the south aisle, with a holy water stoup positioned nearby. A rectangular opening occurs in the porch east wall. A 19th-century moulded polyphant inner door may have been recut from a 12th-century doorway.

The nave and chancel roofs date to 1882. The nave has an arched brace and collar roof. The chancel roof is a canted waggon with ribs and bosses and herringbone boarding behind; the chancel arch is marked by bargeboarding on the truss, and the chancel wall plate is pierced with quatrefoils. The north aisle roof is a boarded waggon reusing 15th-century ribs and bosses, with ribs carved over the east end and a vine-carved wall-plate. The south aisle roof is 1882 arched brace and collar with a further arched brace above the collar, and incorporates 15th-century ribs and bosses fixed to the trusses.

The chancel is stepped-up and contains good 1880s tiling. A cinquefoil-headed sedilia, piscina, and aumbrey with wooden doors are positioned in the chancel. A cinquefoil-headed piscina also occurs on the south wall of the south aisle.

The font is 12th-century, circular, with a frieze on the top of the bowl. The benches date to 1882, with late 19th or early 20th-century stations of the cross. Early 20th-century chancel and parclose screens are present. Late 15th or early 16th-century bench ends are incorporated into chairs.

Several memorials survive. An inscribed slate memorial to John Cornish, died 1610, is fixed to the vestry screen in the north aisle with rustic lettering. A fine slate memorial to George Hele, buried 1652, is used as the north aisle altar front and features three arches of blind arcading carved in relief, with inscriptions to left and right and arms carved in relief in the centre. A late 17th-century wall monument to Sara Symons is positioned on the west wall of the south aisle. A slate memorial to Thomas Edgcumbe, died 1712, by Samuel Harris of Jacobstow, is fixed to the external wall of the south aisle.