Church Of St Briocus

Church of St Briocus, Lezant

A parish church of early 13th-century origin with significant 14th and 15th-century additions, restored in 1869. The building is constructed mainly of roughly coursed polyphant stone with granite used for the 15th-century windows and tower. The roofs are graded slate with ornamental tile cresting, stepped coped verges, and a 19th-century Celtic cross to the gable end of the chancel. The plan comprises a nave, chancel, aisles on both sides, a west tower, a south porch, and a north-east vestry with boiler house.

The tower dates to circa 1480 and rises in three stages. It has a moulded plinth, chamfered string courses, and set-back buttresses. A moulded cornice supports an embattled parapet, with octagonal corner turrets bearing crocketed corner pinnacles rising above false battlements. Small stone crosses surmount each pinnacle, except the north-west where a brass weathercock has replaced the original. The belfry has paired lancet windows on each side. The second stage features a recessed segmental-headed window with hollow spandrels in a rectangular surround and a clock above on the south face. The first stage on the west has a 3-light window with panel tracery and hoodmould directly above a moulded pointed doorway with quatrefoils and daggers to the spandrels; the doorway's dripmould terminates in a circular label-stop on the north and a square label-stop on the south.

The south aisle's west wall contains a 19th-century two-light Decorated-style window set within a 14th-century internal splay. A reset 12th-century corbel, possibly representing a devil or cat, appears at the south-west corner. Three 15th-century 3-light windows with panel tracery and hoodmoulds occupy the south wall. The aisle's contemporary gabled porch sits in the west bay, featuring a moulded 4-centred outer arch with carved decoration to the imposts. Above the porch is a slate sundial dated "1686" with the initials of the churchwardens inscribed. The porch interior has a pointed concave-moulded door with a reset cross (probably from the north-west tower pinnacle) above it. The ceiling is a ceiled waggon roof with bosses at the centre and ends. A 3-light Perpendicular window with panel tracery and hoodmould lights the east wall of the aisle.

The north aisle has three square-headed 15th-century windows of triple cinquefoil-headed lights with labels on the north wall. A pointed single-chamfered doorway appears to the far right. A projection for the staircase of the former rood screen sits immediately west of the east window. The east wall has 3-light 15th-century windows with panel tracery and hoodmould; the west wall contains a 14th-century broad cusped lancet.

The chancel's south side has a pair of 13th-century lancets with a segmental relieving arch above, and 13th-century east buttresses. A 19th-century 3-light Decorated-style window occupies the east end. A 19th-century lean-to vestry and boiler house extends to the north, with a pointed east window featuring L-hinges. Grave slabs are fixed to walls all around the church, including a large slab on the south wall of the south aisle commemorating Fitz Anthony Pennington (died 1690).

The interior features a ceiled waggon roof to the nave and chancel with bosses at intersections, gilded in the chancel. The chancel comprises the 13th-century sanctuary and the east bay of the nave arcade. A moulded granite cornice runs below the wall-plate, stepping at the junction between nave and chancel to mark the position of the former rood screen. Bosses are square in the nave and circular in the chancel. The granite cornice terminates at the junction with the sanctuary, but the wall plate carries billet moulding for the full length of the chancel. The north aisle has a ceiled waggon roof with bosses at intersections and a granite cornice, topped with a later wood modillion eaves cornice on the south side. The south aisle's roof was entirely renewed in 1928 to accommodate a wider aisle; it lacks trailing vine decoration to the wallplate and has a granite cornice below.

The nave arcades comprise four bays of 15th-century construction, with granite moulded segmental arches on clustered columns with moulded capitals and bases—practically identical to those at the Church of St Michael, Lawhitton. The tower arch is also segmental-headed with clustered responds featuring moulded capitals and bases. A narrow single-chamfered 4-centred doorway provides access to an internal stair turret. Doorways to the staircase (still surviving) and the loft of the former rood screen are visible in the north aisle.

A 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina occupies the south wall of the chancel, with a square aumbry in the north wall. Apart from a 12th-century octagonal Ventergen font (probably originally with carved heads to the corners and still bearing carved leaf emblems to each cardinal face), the fittings and furnishings are 19th century and later. Late 19th and early 20th-century stained glass appears in several windows, including the east window of the south aisle commemorating William Pallexfen Bastard, Rector of Lezant (died 1915). A reproduction of a 15th-century Flemish altar-piece stands at the west end of the north aisle.

The monuments are significant. The north aisle displays three 18th-century and two 19th-century wall memorials. The south aisle contains two early 19th-century wall memorials and a wall memorial to Thomas Snell, Rector of Lezant (died 1670), positioned west of the door. The Snell memorial features Ionic columns surmounted by obelisks flanking an inscription panel with an armorial device above. In the south-east corner is an early 17th-century wall memorial showing a stiffly reclining lady holding a skull with draped curtains behind; Corinthian columns support an entablature with an armorial device to the centre and figures at the corners, with space for an inscription panel beneath and a grotesque head below. Against the east wall, partly blocking the piscina in the south wall, is an early 17th-century slate altar tomb, said to commemorate Thomas Trefusis (died 1610), his wife Mary, and their children. The slab against the east wall carries armorial shields and strapwork decoration, while the right return displays carved kneeling figures of Trefusis, his wife, and children with further decoration around the border.