Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas, originally a parish church, later served as a guildhall, borough prison, and school. It dates back to the 12th or 13th century and has undergone alterations, particularly in the 16th century. Further restoration work was carried out in 1852 and 1862.

The church is constructed of rubble walls with dry slate roofs, incorporating some 17th-century crested clay ridge tiles. The tower has a pyramidal roof topped with a finial and weather vane. A brick stack serves the boiler house. The building's layout includes a nave and chancel under a single roof, an original west tower which was later raised, and a north aisle built over the former prison. A vestry and boiler house are located at the east end of the north aisle.

The exterior features a possibly 12th-century round-headed doorway with hollow-chamfered volcanic stone, and a smaller, unchamfered doorway on the tower’s return wall, both near the angle. A 13th-century hollow-chamfered lancet window is positioned above the west doorway. The church has 19th-century windows: two granite lancets to the south aisle, showing evidence of a former south doorway; three pairs of freestone lancets to the north wall; a boiler house with a pair of mortared lancets and a mortared pointed doorway; a blocked doorway to the right of the aisle; and a three-light lancet window to the east wall of the aisle. The chancel has a three-light traceried east window and a granite two-light north window with cinquefoil heads to the lights.

Inside, the walls are plastered. The chancel has a 16th-century oak waggon roof, and the nave has a roof probably of the same date, over 5 bays of oak trusses. These trusses have morticed and cranked collars and curved truss feet carried on wallplates, similar to the roof of the Old Guildhall in East Looe. A three-bay arcade separates the nave and north aisle, and uses posts and braces braced with knees made from reused ships' timbers. The roof in the north aisle has six bays with 19th-century scissor trusses. The tower arch is pointed. There is some slate flooring near the west doorway, and a 14th-century trefoil-headed freestone piscina in the chancel.

Notable fittings include a round freestone font in the 12th/13th-century style, with cable and dog-tooth carving on the rim and carved foliage on the base of the bowl; a 17th-century carved oak chair; a 20th-century pulpit; and 1933 pews with carved ends.