Church Of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a parish church, consecrated in 1851. It was designed by Christopher Eales, who is known for this as his only church design. A flat-roofed choir vestry and sacristy were added in 1964, and a broach spire constructed in 1971. The church is built of local rubble with granite dressings, and has steep dry Delabole slate roofs with coped gable ends and bracketed cornices. A stone stack rises above the north-east vestry, and the spire is made of glass reinforced plastic.

The architectural style is Early Gothic. The plan includes a nave, crossing with transepts, and a chancel. The lofty nave is lit by clerestory windows above low and narrow north and south lean-to aisles. A north porch, a tower at the west end of the north aisle, an original vestry in the north-east angle, and a further vestry and sacristy added to the south-east angle are also present.

The external elevation is characterized by two-tier weathered buttresses dividing the bays, and simple lancet windows to the aisles and clerestory. Ordered openings with nook shafts and hoodmoulds are found at the east and west ends. The west doorway is pointed and has paired lights above a blind gable oculus. A trio of lancets define the east end, surmounted by a wheel window in the gable. Each transept features paired north and south lancets with nook shafts and a gable oculus. The three-stage tower has single lancets to the lower stage, trefoils to the second stage, and louvered lancets to paired recessed panels at the bell stage. Pointed-arched doorways include nook shafts.

The interior features a deliberately simple and restrained plastered finish. There are four bays of pointed stone arches on round piers, leading to the nave/aisles. The crossing and chancel have taller arches, with lower arches to the north and south. The roof is arch braced, using crown posts of four principal bays, with trusses carried on corbels set on tall shafts on the clerestory sill strings, plus secondary intermediate trusses carried on corbels above the clerestory windows. Similar roofing appears in the crossing and chancel, with principal trusses only. The aisles have unequal arch bracing to support their lean-to roofs.

Fittings include square-ended open-panelled pews, a rood beam supported on corbels with a rood, an octagonal moulded granite font, and an octagonal oak pulpit of 1933, given by the Mothers' Union. Monuments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries commemorate members of the Luke, Yawdrey, Woolcock, and Stephens families. Late 19th-century coloured memorial glass is found in the south aisle, dedicated to the Luke, Higman, Hest, Yawdrey, and Bele families. The overall design reflects the Early Gothic influence of the Ecclesiological movement.