Church Of St James

Church of St. James

Parish church, rededicated in 1259. The building comprises a 14th-century tower, 15th-century aisles (south aisle first, then north aisle), and a nave and chancel in one. The church underwent late 19th-century re-roofing and alterations to some windows. The walls are constructed of sandstone rubble, roughly coursed on the north aisle and random elsewhere, with granite dressings. The roofs are slate with raised coped verges and crested ridge tiles with cross finials. Some dressings are in metamorphic stone of early date.

The west tower is two-storied and stands on a moulded plinth. It has diagonal buttresses to the west and weathered buttresses to the east, with string courses and an embattled parapet on corbels. The pointed arched west door features a hood mould and relieving arch, and is fitted with a 19th-century door with strap hinges. Above the door is a three-light 15th-century window in the Perpendicular style with cusped lights, a four-centred arch, hood mould and relieving arch. A lancet window in metamorphic stone is positioned at upper level to the south. The top stage has two-light bell-openings to east and west, cusped with four-centred arch and relieving arch, fitted with slate louvres, and single-light openings to north and south. To the south, the parapet steps up over an embattled stair tower of square plan with string course continued and lancets (two to each stage). A wooden clock at the third stage north, dated 1810, has a moulded edge and gold numerals.

The chancel projects beyond the aisles for one bay. Its east window is three-lights in 19th-century Perpendicular style with four-centred arch and hood mould. To the south is a 13th-century lancet in metamorphic stone, and to the north a 19th-century cusped lancet. A single-storey lean-to structure adjoins the angle between the chancel and north aisle.

The five-bay south aisle contains three-light windows with flat heads and hood moulds, most with trefoil lights. The second from the east has pointed arched lights with plain hood mould; others have square or circular stops. To the west is a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window with hood mould. A similar 19th-century east window is present. Attached to the west wall is a slate tablet to Margaret Bligh, dated 1785, with a nowy head. The gabled south porch has a two-centred arched hollow-chamfered outer doorway with wave moulding, flat head and hood mould. Stone benches flank the interior, which contains a tall pointed arched inner doorway with roll and hollow mouldings and convex step stops, and an early door with studs and strap hinges and sanctuary handle. The rafter roof is plain. A lead sundial, approximately 1½ metres square with pointed numerals and dating to the late 18th century (date illegible), lies on the floor.

The six-bay north aisle has north windows with cusped ogee heads, three lights with upper tracery, four-centred arch and hood mould. The third bay from the east has a projecting rood stair tower with pitched roof. The west window is three-light Perpendicular with replaced mullions; the east window is largely 19th-century, also three-light Perpendicular. The gabled north porch, built on a plinth in metamorphic stone with stone eaves cornice similar to the plinth on the tower, has a four-centred arched hollow-chamfered granite outer doorway with flat head and hood mould and leaves in the spandrels. Inside are wooden benches with a 19th-century moulded arched-braced roof. A tall four-centred arched roll and hollow moulded inner doorway features a holy water stoup to the left and the remains of an ogee-headed image niche above, with a 19th-century studded door with decorative strap hinges.

Interior

The tower interior has a four-centred arched hollow-chamfered doorway to the stair and a 19th-century framed ceiling in 18 panels. A pointed tower arch in rubble features impost mouldings.

The nave and chancel, united in one space, are covered by a 19th-century seven-bay roof with arched-braces, upper collar and collar purlin, with brattished wall-plate. The east bay contains 19th-century painting of figures of saints. The six-bay south arcade features granite piers with shafts at corners and moulded capitals, with four-centred hollow-chamfered arches of two orders. The six-bay north arcade, dating to the later 15th century, has Cornish standard piers.

The chancel has a splayed reveal to the south window, a pointed arched piscina and sedilia to the south, and a 19th-century marble reredos. A round-arched chamfered piscina is located in the south wall of the south aisle. Granite segmental inner heads to the windows probably date to the 19th-century rebuilding of the upper part of the wall. The north aisle has lower and upper doors to the north rood stair, fitted with 19th-century basket-arch doors and doors with strap hinges. An image niche with trefoil head stands to the left of the east window, containing a 19th-century image. A corbel above the central pier of the arcade may have served to spring a former roof.

Fittings include a 19th-century octagonal stone font in the north aisle with Perpendicular-style cover. Late 19th-century carved wooden pews occupy the nave and aisles. A pulpit of circa 1500 in the south aisle contains four carved panels of the Evangelists, possibly Spanish. The chancel contains a pair of reading desks incorporating carved panels with figures, and a tall 18th-century sanctuary chair with panelled back and sides. The nave holds a slate tablet recording the foundation of a school by Sir Coventry Carew in 1766, and a metamorphic stone bowl font with moulded corners, possibly 15th-century. A 16th-century wooden chest used as an altar stands in the north aisle. Remains of a rood screen and a carved wooden cupboard with panels displaying heads in roundels are also present. A carved 19th-century wooden screen crosses the tower. Stocks stand in the north porch. Nineteenth-century painting of stations of the cross in roundels ornaments the spandrels of the north and south arcades.

Monuments

The tower contains a baroque marble monument to Sir John Carew (1692) and other family members, featuring a convex oval slate inscription panel festooned with flowers, putti to the top and skulls below, Corinthian columns to the sides and female figures, and a plinth with shield of arms, cornice and entablature with two upper putti.

The south aisle contains several monuments: an oval marble tablet on slate ground to Mary Collings (1771); a marble tablet with draped urn on slate ground in neo-Greek style to Margaret Nesham (1808); a marble monument with circular inscription panel, pilasters and frieze, cornice surmounted by urns with Roman columna rostrata and two ships, to Admiral Thomas Graves (1755); and a marble tablet with bay leaf surround to Mrs. Mary Graves (1718).

The north aisle contains a marble tablet on corbel with carved head to Elizabeth Carew (1679); a slate tablet to the Carew family with Latin inscription (1611); a monument with slate inscription panel, marble Corinthian columns with frieze and entablature, lion masks, head of putto with wings on the frieze and central shield of arms, to Sara Carew (1671); a marble tablet to Caroline Anne Pole Carew (1833); a 19th-century marble tablet with segmental head and reclining figure to Reginald Pole Carew (died 1835); a slate tablet with Latin and English verses written by Richard Carew immediately before his death (1620); and a marble monument with portrait medallion, draped curtains and putti, to Mary Carew (1731).

The chancel floor contains a large brass to Margery Arundell (1420) with a thin architectural surround featuring an ogee arch and finials, and a slate tablet with plinth and cornice and inlaid brass shield of arms to Thomas Wolsdon (1608). Marble ledger stones commemorate Elizabeth and Honow Carew (1682) and Oliver Deeble (1656). A slate tablet with bolection moulded surround on plinth to Jane Carew (1679) has a whitewashed stone shield of arms below.

Stained glass in the chancel and south aisle dates to circa 1850-60 and is by Clayton and Bell. The north aisle west window is by Kempe.