Church of St Gabriel

The Church of St Gabriel is an Anglican church built in the early 20th century. Work began in 1909, designed by W.D. Caröe, with the chancel completed in 1924 and a northeast chapel added in 1954-55. The church is constructed of limestone brought to course, with yellow stone dressings, and features steep slate roofs laid to diminishing courses and random widths, with some coped gables.

The church is designed in a Free Middle Gothic style. The plan includes a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a northeast chapel with a corner bell turret, a porch between the north transept and aisle, and a principal north west porch.

The exterior is characterised by buttressed aisles with three-light traceried windows set back under segmental arches, although window openings are otherwise disposed irregularly, with varied types and sizes. A prominent feature is the five-light cusped chancel-arch window above a slightly bowed, side-buttressed apse projection, which includes a central niche containing a carved angel. The chapel’s east window is a four-light design with cusped and curvilinear tracery; the king mullion functions as a slender chimney breast rising from a weathered projection, topped with a small gable stack. The bell turret has north and south buttressed gables with segmental arched openings. The north transept contains three stepped lancets, the central one cruciform. The west gable, set behind a stepped parapet, has a louvred window above a large four-light traceried window flanked by corner buttresses. A deep-plan, single-storey porch is located on the west end of the north aisle. This porch has a pointed arched doorway with quatrefoils above and a low-pitched gable to the parapet, a wide 2-:3-:2-light window being on the return. A smaller porch is situated at the angle between the north aisle and transept, with a west doorway and a three-light north window.

The interior features a long nave with tall octagonal piers, very flat arches, and low waggon roofs. Fittings include 17th-century altar rails from St Bartholemew, Lostwithiel; a reredos with low reliefs by R. Pinwell, topped with a carved Christ in Majesty dating from 1949; and a good font with tapered sides and stiff-leaf carving by Caröe. Glass features include a 1918 war memorial window in the south aisle, by Kempe & Co, and five small figures above the chancel arch by Duncan Dearle of Morris & Co.

This church provides a good example of Caröe’s work, with particular note made of the articulation of the aisles on the exterior.