Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Mevagissey

This is a cruciform church, probably of 12th-century origin, substantially reworked in the 14th and 15th centuries and restored in 1887-8 by the architect J.P. St Aubyn. The building is constructed of granite and mixed rubble, with the north arcade built in Pentewan stone (a variety of elvan), and is roofed with slate.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south transept and south porch. It sits low in a steeply sloped churchyard.

The stocky west tower is unbuttressed and has a saddleback roof. Its upper stage was added in 1887-8, reinstating a medieval stage that had become ruinous by the 17th century. The west window contains interlaced tracery, while the belfry lights display more elaborate Victorian tracery. The simple south porch includes a sundial in its gable dated 1703 with the inscription "we die all". The inner south door is Norman, with chamfered jambs and a segmental head featuring simple rope moulding. Adjacent to it is a four-light square-headed window, dating perhaps to around 1500-40. The Decorated south transept is disproportionately large, with a three-light south window featuring cusped interlaced tracery dating to around 1300-50. The chancel is gabled, with a Decorated east window. The south wall contains two small Perpendicular windows with ogee-headed lights in square frames. The north aisle was added in the 15th century and has three small windows with four-centred heads, and a blocked door at the west end of the north wall.

Interior

The Perpendicular north arcade consists of four arches on piers with four shafts and four hollows, topped with octagonal capitals. The central pier and its flanking arches had collapsed and were replaced in 1887. The nave and aisle have wagon roofs of 1887, incorporating re-used medieval bosses in the chancel. The opening to the south transept features large timber braces supporting the wall plate for the nave roof, which continues uninterrupted across the opening—a feature added in 1887. The floors are partly stone-flagged and partly laid with encaustic tiles.

Principal Fittings and Monuments

The Norman font has a circular bowl decorated with a herringbone pattern on the chamfered upper rim, with large and small chip-carved rosettes, and chevrons around the base of the bowl. The circular stem is encircled by a plain roll moulding and cable moulding. On the north side of the tower arch stands an ex-situ stoup, also featuring fine Norman chip carving. An oak panelled reredos of 1908 has upper arches copied from a Jacobean pulpit formerly in the church. An oak pulpit with reliefs depicting the life of St Peter dates probably to the Edwardian period. An ex-situ Decorated piscina with ogee pointed arches and cusping is now positioned in the nave south wall. Another piscina of similar design, hidden by the organ in the east wall of the south transept, suggests that the transept was originally a semi-private chapel with its own altar. The organ was relocated from the north aisle to the south transept in 1952. The plain nave benches are of pine and date to 1887-8. The east window is of 1887. The north aisle central window was installed in 1967 and is by J. Wippell and Co. of Exeter.

The most prominent monument stands north of the altar: an ambitious and showy standing monument to Otwell Hill, who died in 1617. It comprises a stiffly reclining husband with his wife in similar pose on a lower shelf below him, both with elbows resting on red marble cushions. Freestanding Corinthian columns support a high arched canopy with strapwork and an inscription in the tympanum. The surround is ornate throughout, with ribbons, rosettes and other decorative details. The north aisle contains a humbler slate tablet to Lewis Dart, died 1632, showing his widow and nine children kneeling beneath two arches. Another slate tablet on the exterior of the porch commemorates George Carew, died 1661, with crude classical patterns incised into its surface.

Subsidiary Features and History

The upper churchyard gate incorporates two 15th-century pinnacles from the tower, which were found beneath the porch and repositioned in 1887-8. The churchyard paths are lined with seaworn boulders crudely carved as grave markers, mostly from the 18th century.

A church at Mevagissey is documented from 1230, though the Norman south door and font suggest it existed significantly earlier. The building was rededicated in 1259. The south transept was added probably in the early 14th century, and the north aisle in the 15th century. By the 17th century, the upper tower was in a state of collapse. J.P. St Aubyn's restoration of 1887-8 rebuilt and heightened virtually all the walls, renewed the roofs and the upper stage of the tower, rebuilt the porch, blocked the north door, and completely renewed the north aisle west window and the second window from the east in the north aisle. Tracery in other windows was repaired. An organ was originally sited at the east end of the north aisle, and the south transept was given over to seating.

James Piers St Aubyn (1815-95) developed a highly successful architectural practice, eventually responsible for several hundred new or restored churches. He maintained offices in London and Devonport. Mevagissey is a late work in his career, undertaken perhaps as a personal favour, since St Aubyn formally retired in 1885. He is buried at St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.