Church Of St Sidwell

Church of St Sidwell

Parish church, dating from the 12th century, with a 14th-century west tower (raised in the 15th century), and 15th-century south aisle and south porch. The church underwent some 19th-century restoration. It is constructed of slatestone and granite rubble with granite dressings; the tower is in squared slatestone rubble, while the south aisle and south porch are in squared granite rubble. The roofs are of slate with ridge tiles and gable ends.

The original 12th-century church was cruciform in plan, with nave and chancel in one and transepts to north and south. The north transept survives. The west tower was added in the 14th century, with its third stage rebuilt in the 15th century. Around the mid-15th century, the south aisle with south porch were added.

The north side of the nave is visible and has no plinth. It contains one 3-light window, possibly of the 16th or 17th century, with chamfered mullions and surround, hollow-chamfered internally with a square head. The chancel is of slatestone rubble with granite quoins. Its east end has a 3-light 19th-century Perpendicular window with cusped lights, a 4-centred arch and hood mould. To the south is a 2-light 19th-century window with cusped lights, a square head and hood mould, and to the north is a single chamfered lancet. The north transept is also of slatestone rubble with granite quoins and no plinth. Its north gable end has a 3-light window, possibly of the 14th century, with three 2-centred arched chamfered lights, the central light taller. To the east is a 3-centred arched chamfered single light.

The west tower stands in three stages on a moulded plinth with diagonal weathered buttresses and moulded string courses. It has an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The 2-centred arched west doorway has a moulded surround with two engaged shafts to each side, a 17th-century studded plank door with strap hinges, a hood mould and relieving arch. The 15th-century 3-light Perpendicular west window has cusped lights, a 4-centred arch, hood mould and relieving arch. The third stage features 15th-century 3-light Perpendicular bell-openings with cusped lights, 4-centred arches and hood moulds with pierced wooden louvres, as well as quatrefoils and lancets to the north serving the stair.

The south aisle comprises five bays on a hollow-chamfered plinth, with the porch in the westernmost bay. At its east end is a 3-light 19th-century Perpendicular window with cusped lights, a 4-centred arch and hood mould. The west end has a similar 15th-century Perpendicular window with some 19th-century restoration to the mullions. The south side has four 15th-century Perpendicular 3-light windows with 4-centred arches and hood moulds, with some 19th-century repair to the mullions. The gabled south porch stands on a plinth continuous with the aisle plinth, with moulded raised coped verges to the gable. The outer doorway has a 4-centred arch with convex and concave mouldings and hood mould, together with a 19th-century cast iron gate with spear finials. The interior of the porch has a slate floor and 15th-century wagon roof with carved wall-plates and bosses and ribs, left unceiled. On the right wall is a slate tablet to John and Katherine with verses, dated 1696. The inner doorway has a wave-moulded surround with a 4-centred arch and hollow-moulding, recessed spandrels with carved leaves, and a fine 17th-century studded door with fleur-de-lys strap hinges and a sanctuary knocker. Above it is an image niche.

The interior has plastered walls and slate-paved floors. The nave and chancel are roofed as one, with an unceiled wagon roof of approximately early 19th-century date, featuring moulded ribs and wall-plates with carved bosses; the bosses in the chancel are reset 15th-century work of high quality. The south aisle has a 15th-century wagon roof with carved bosses and wall-plates and moulded ribs. The north transept has a 19th-century common rafter roof. The tower arch is 4-centred with triple shafts having carved capitals and bases, with a 19th-century wooden screen across it incorporating panels of 15th-century carving. A 2-centred arched doorway to the tower stair has a 17th-century studded plank door with fleur-de-lys strap hinges. A wide moulded 4-centred arch opens to the north transept. The south arcade comprises five bays with Pevsner A-type piers with carved capitals and 4-centred arches with convex mouldings. The chancel contains a 19th-century aumbry and piscina, together with a 19th-century carved wooden reredos in Gothic style; the east window has nook shafts. The south aisle has a 15th-century piscina with a 4-centred arch and a similar holy water stoup by the south door.

The church contains a fine 12th-century stone font of Altarnun type in the nave, with a square bowl, faces at the corners, stylised 6-petalled flowers in circles on the four sides, and a central octagonal stem. The nave and aisle feature a good set of 15th-century bench ends, carved with interlaced knots, stars, shields of arms, a green man, and symbols of the Passion. A 15th-century rood screen displays Perpendicular style carved panels and tracery, with some 19th-century repair. The nave has a 19th-century carved wooden pulpit and reader's desk incorporating some panels of 15th-century carving, and 19th-century coat hooks on the north wall. In the north transept is a wooden chest with fine ironwork straps and a 5-panelled screen of around the 18th century in painted leather in Chinoiserie style, decorated with birds and trees, the back with plain painted panels, said to have come from Tregeare House. The chancel has a 19th-century communion rail in Gothic style. An 18th-century alms box in the south aisle is carved with oak leaves. 17th-century stocks stand in the south porch.

Monuments in the chancel include a slate ledger stone to John Squier of High Hall, 1694. In the nave is a marble monument to John Couch Adams, who discovered the planet Neptune and was born at Lidcott in Laneast parish, died 1892. In the north transept are a slate monument with marble surround and Gothic lettering to William Edgecombe, 1679, with verses entitled "the mother's valediction", and an unidentifiable slate monument with marble surround, probably also of the late 17th century.

The east window of the chancel and the south windows in the aisle retain fragments of 15th-century glass depicting Christ crucified, St Christopher and St Catherine, and instruments of the Passion. The east window in the south aisle has late 19th-century stained glass with the Virgin and Child, St George, and St Sativola (the Latin rendering of St Sidwell), shown with her symbol the scythe. St Sidwell is the patron saint of reapers, as her head was cut off with a scythe.