Church Of St Maddern

The Church of St Maddern is a parish church located in Madron. It features a Norman font and dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, with a porch added in 1887. Many windows were renewed or partly renewed in the late 19th century. The church is primarily constructed of granite ashlar, with some granite rubble and granite dressings, and has scantle slate roofs with coped gables.

The layout includes a partly 14th-century nave and chancel under one roof, a 14th-century or earlier south aisle, a 14th-century west tower, a 15th-century north aisle, and 19th-century porches. The exterior showcases a fine embattled two-stage west tower, featuring a corbelled wall table that separates the stages. There is a pointed-arched west doorway, original two-light windows in the lower stage, and Y-traceried windows in the upper stage. A clockface is located on the north side, and a stair turret is positioned between the tower and the north aisle. To the right of the south porch are two 15th-century windows with Norman carved heads above them, while the other windows are either 19th-century or have 19th-century mullions and tracery. The inner south doorway and a similar north doorway were relocated during the 15th century.

Inside, the church features 14th and 15th-century six-bay arcades that separate the nave from the aisles, early 16th-century waggon roofs adorned with carved bosses and remnants of old paint, as well as early 14th-century sedilia and piscina in the chancel and a rood stair in the south wall. Notable fittings include a 12th-century font, a medieval inscribed stone, a carved alabaster panel from a 14th-century reredos, five medieval bench ends, two later bench ends, and one copy. A 17th-century tower screen is a reproduction of 14th-century fragments. The church also contains several memorial windows and monuments, including a brass for John Clies, a merchant and twice Mayor of Penzance, who died in 1623; a slab for the Cock and Fleming family, featuring a fine incised depiction of four adults and ten children; a slate tablet for John Maddern, Mayor of Penzance, who died in 1621; a fine marble aedicule for the Rev. Thomas Paul, who died in 1716, and the Rev. Duke Pearse, who died in 1712, both with carved effigies; as well as memorials for the Rev. John David Cox, Dr. Walter Borlase, and several others of interest. High on the walls are funeral hatchments commemorating principal local families.