Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A parish church consecrated in 1438, with the nave possibly slightly earlier. The nave was heightened and a clerestory added when the tower, south aisle, south porch and north aisle were constructed. Nicholas Assheton was the patron. The church was restored by J P St. Aubyn in 1858, and a further north aisle was added by J D Sedding in 1882. The tower and bells were burnt out in 1895.

The building is constructed in ashlar granite masonry with set back buttresses at the corners and stepped buttresses between windows. It has slate roofs throughout. The nave and chancel are in one, with a separate roof over the south aisle which is shorter than the chancel. The north aisle continues in line with the chancel, and the added north aisle is extended by a late 19th-century vestry in line with the chancel. A moulded granite string continues along the south aisle, south porch and east end of the earlier north aisle, with a distinct break at the chancel and tower. The later north aisle reuses much of 15th-century stonework from the demolished north wall of the earlier north aisle. The west wall of the later north aisle features late 19th-century rusticated granite blocks. A battlemented parapet runs throughout.

The tower is of three stages with polyphant and freestone dressings. It has a battlemented and coped parapet, stepped set-back buttresses on the first and second stages, and octagonal turrets on the corners of the top stage. Winged angels are used as corbel brackets at the base, surmounted by pinnacles and crocketted finials. The west door has polyphant stone dressings to a wide two-centred arch with moulded arch and jambs, and a 19th-century hood. Above is a four-light window of 1896 with Perpendicular tracery and a double relieving arch above. On the east side of the tower in the second stage is a two-light window with cusped heads, slightly blocked by the roof ridge. Three-light louvered belfry openings on all four faces are set under four-centred arches with hoods and drips.

The south aisle contains an east window of three lights with Perpendicular tracery, partly restored with eroded top lights. Three three-light Perpendicular windows on the south side have wide two-centred arches, hoods and drips. An east window on the south side of the aisle has eroded tracery and a higher cill level, positioned over a small priest's doorway with a chamfered two-centred arch. A polygonal rood stair turret with battlements and string courses is located to the left on the south side. A window to the west has original tracery and partly renewed jambs, with further 19th-century tracery. The west window of the south aisle is of two lights in a two-centred arch with 19th-century tracery, retaining original right-hand jambs and mullions.

The chancel contains a south window of three lights with Perpendicular tracery, with 19th-century mullions and tracery, and earlier eroded work at the top. The east window is of 19th-century five-light Perpendicular tracery with earlier jambs, a 19th-century hoodmould and angels heads in the drips.

The earlier north aisle has an east window of three lights with Perpendicular tracery in a wide two-centred arch with hood and rosettes in the drips. The west window is of two lights, Perpendicular, partly restored with a 19th-century hood and drips. Clerestory windows of the nave, visible only from the interior, are positioned in the spandrels of the arcade and are of two lights with cusped heads and mouchettes above.

The later north aisle bears a datestone reading 18 + 82 on a buttress in the north-east corner. The north aisle east window is partly blocked on the exterior by the vestry in the north-east corner. The north wall features four three-light Perpendicular windows below wide two-centred arches, with mostly 19th-century tracery and some earlier eroded work. Some mullions and jambs are reused. A north door slightly protrudes into the second window under a 19th-century Tudor arch with a 19th-century rectangular hood and plain drips. A four-light 19th-century Perpendicular window is positioned in the west of the north aisle.

The vestry in the north-east corner has a lower battlemented parapet and moulded string, with a five-light 19th-century window in a rectangular opening on the east wall.

The south porch has a battlemented parapet continuing at a lower level on the exterior. The door has a two-centred arch with moulded jambs and engaged piers with rounded caps. The south door itself has a two-centred cavetto moulded arch and jambs with run-out stops on the right. The door is circa 16th-century timber studded construction with plain strap hinges and an early closing ring. A resited figure stands in a niche above, with the remains of a holy water stoup on the east wall.

Interior

The nave has an original wagon roof (restored in 1933) with carved bosses and moulded ribs, supported by small carved stone brackets. The south porch has an original flat roof with carved bosses and moulded ribs, with small stone carved supporting brackets.

A five-bay arcade opens to the south aisle and a six-bay arcade to the earlier north aisle, both with elliptical arches with hollow chamfers and type B granite piers (following Pevsner's classification). The piers have rounded bases and plain rounded caps, with slightly deeper abaci on the south aisle. The easternmost arch of the north arcade is slightly lower and more pointed, positioned over an alabaster effigy. The later north aisle has a five-bay arcade with type A granite piers and four-centred arches. A 15th-century tower arch is splayed and moulded on both sides with a double relieving arch. Rood loft stairs on the south wall are accessed beneath a three-centred arch, with an upper opening having chamfered jambs and a segmental arch.

The nave, north and south aisles were reseated in 1859, and the later north aisle in 1882. An ornate base to a parclose screen encloses the chancel on the north, south and west, erected in 1882, with a carved screen above on the north and south having an ornate carved cornice. A reredos was erected in memory of Rev. John Shaw (rector 1887–1906), with a carved oak super-reredos erected in 1919.

An early altar table in the south aisle comprises a granite mensa with cyma recta moulded edge and later supports. A pulpit, also erected in memory of Rev. John Shaw, is of carved oak. A piscina in the south aisle at the east end of the south wall has an ogee head with cusping, blocked to the rear.

The font is Norman, comprising a round bowl on a later octagonal base of granite blocks. The bowl is decorated with rope work at the waist and four figure heads at the corners, with palmettes and crosses on four sides. It has a locking flat octagonal cover of timber and wrought iron.

Monuments and memorials include a recumbent alabaster effigy in armour of Sir Robert Willoughby, 1st Lord Willoughby de Broke, who died in 1502, positioned beneath the east arch of the north arcade between the chancel and north aisle. He was Steward of the Duchy and held the manor of Kellyland (Callington), with the manor house of Bere Ferrers as his favourite seat. The effigy shows him gartered and wearing the mantle of the Order of the Garter, with his feet resting on a dog and bedesmen beneath the soles of his feet. It is set on a moulded base decorated with heraldic shields and a moulded cornice. A brass to Nicholas Assheton of Callington, a justice of the Common Pleas in 1444 and sometime Member of Parliament for Helston, Launceston and the county (1422–37) and patron of the church, has been resited in the chancel aisle. It shows Assheton dressed in judicial costume with his wife Margaret and five sons and six daughters, dated 1465. Four shields of arms and the two groups of children have been removed. The margin inscription contains 12 elegiac verses below.

Slate stones on the exterior include memorials on the south wall of the chancel to William Ramsey (1730) and to William and Elizabeth Ramsey (1726). On the east wall of the porch is a memorial in memory of Ann and Joan Holliday, signed W Nichol (1810).

Glass includes a memorial window in the later north aisle east window to the Thornton family and several parishioners, featuring stained glass figures of St. Peter, St. Paul and the four evangelists, with six carved stone figures and six carved stone panels below and a dedication plaque to the right. Some reset early glass is present in the west window of the south aisle.