Church Of St Hermes

Church of St Hermes

Parish church of cruciform plan, dating largely from the 13th century, with substantial 15th-century refenestration, major restoration in 1887-9, and mid-20th-century rebuilding of the tower top. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, west tower, and south porch. Construction is in slate rubble with Catacleuse stone windows and stone roofs finished with 19th-century granite coping and apex crosses over the east gable ends of the chancel and nave.

The exterior shows evidence of its long building history. The nave contains three 15th-century Perpendicular windows with 2-centred arches and hoodmoulds: two on the south side and one on the north. A 13th-century moulded 2-centred arch south doorway with pyramid stops and hoodmould retains a 18th or early 19th-century fielded panel door. The north doorway, also 13th-century, was boarded over at the time of survey in 1987; a buttress with weathered set-offs stands to its west. The rebuilt gabled porch incorporates a reused moulded 2-centred arch doorway with hoodmould. The north transept has similar Perpendicular windows with weathered set-offs set back from the corners. The south transept features a Perpendicular south window without hoodmould, a straight-headed 3-light window on the east side with trefoil-headed lights, and a gable kneeler dated 1888. The chancel east window, similar to other Perpendicular windows, is likely 19th-century in date. The north and south chancel sides each have a 19th-century 3-light window with straight head and cusped head lights.

The west tower survives only to its lower stage, originally unbuttressed, with a weathered granite string at the first stage level, a blocked stair window slit on the south side, and a late 19th-century 3-light west window. The mid-20th-century rebuilt second stage is rendered, with pyramidal slate roof and 2-light Gothic south and west windows.

The interior displays late 19th-century roofing throughout the porch, nave, transepts, and chancel, all with arch braced principals. Internal walls are plastered with exposed chamfered stone rear arches. The nave and chancel are not aligned on a straight axis. The late 19th-century rebuilt chancel arch and transept arches are all similar 2-centred and chamfered with moulded capitals to the responds. The rebuilt tall narrow tower arch has moulded imposts. The doorway to the stair turret features a hollow-chamfered 4-centred arch with pyramid stops. A stoup by the south doorway in the nave has a chamfered 2-centred arch.

Fittings include a late 15th-century carved corbel set into the east wall of the north transept, a late 12th or early 13th-century plain octagonal font, an 18th-century octagonal fielded panel pulpit with fluted pilasters at the corners, early 20th-century choir stalls with pierced quatrefoil panels in the backs, plain mid to late 19th-century soft wood benches, and late 19th-century patterned encaustic tiles in the sanctuary.

The church is notable for its collection of slate wall monuments. In the chancel are monuments to Richard Harvey (died 1666) and Richard Russell (died 1654). The south transept contains monuments to William Pomeroye (died 1622) with a figure carved in contemporary dress, Humphrey Arthur (died 1676) with floral decoration around the inscription panel, and a slate to his wife Elizabeth. A late 17th-century monument with columns and entablatures commemorates Ralph Keate (died 1672). The north transept holds an unidentified slate with 10 kneeling figures and date 162(7 or 9), and a late 17th-century monument with columns and entablatures to Richard and Eleanora Vivian (died 1708 and 1707 respectively). Monuments in the nave include slates to Nicholas and Jane Brewer (died 1642), Richard Hare (died 1610), Richard Louis (died 1688), John Tom (died 1647), two daughters of Walter Piper (died 1723), and a fragment with carved kneeling figures.

The church contains no stained glass except for a few coloured lights in some tracery and window heads. The bell at the base of the tower is a recast of a bell formerly hung in a makeshift belfry in the churchyard, which is the subject of John Betjeman's blank-verse autobiography "Summoned by Bells" (1960). Betjeman visited the Rectory, now St Ervan House. The first Rector, Master Lawrence, died in 1258.