Church Of St Petrock

Church of St Petrock

A small parish church at Hollacombe with a complex building history spanning from at least the 13th century to the 1880s. The church tradition holds an exceptionally venerable lineage, with Beatrix Cresswell describing it as "one of the most venerable in the Diocese" for its possible pre-Conquest foundation dating back to the 6th century. The nave probably originates from the 13th century, while the chancel and west tower are 14th century in date. The building underwent substantial restoration in the 1880s, which affected much of its masonry and fenestration.

The structure is built in stone rubble with freestone and granite dressings beneath slate roofs topped with 19th-century crested ridge tiles. The church is small and aisleless, comprising a nave and chancel of equal width, a south porch, and a distinctive saddleback west tower. The east wall carries timber verges to the gable and features a 2-light 14th-century Decorated window in Polyphant stone with trefoil-headed lights below a plate tracery roundel slightly recessed, equipped with a 19th-century hoodmould and label stops below a relieving arch with a replaced mullion. A trefoil-headed lancet on the south chancel wall is a product of the 1880s restoration and may copy a late 13th or early 14th-century prototype. The external boundary between nave and chancel is marked by 19th-century buttresses with set-offs, a gabled stone ventilation pot on the ridge, and a change in crested ridge tile design.

The south side includes a 2-light 19th-century Decorated window with plate tracery and hoodmould, positioned east of the porch. To its west is a chamfered lancet with relieving arch and deep internal splay, likely a 19th-century copy of an earlier Early English lancet. The north side displays two 2-light square-headed 19th-century Perpendicular cusped windows with hoodmoulds and label stops. Angle buttresses with set-offs flank the west end of the nave, also dating to the 1880s.

The two-stage saddleback west tower has been largely rebuilt but retains a plinth, string course, and coped gables with kneelers to north and south. It lacks a west doorway and features a late 15th or early 16th-century uncusped granite 3-light west window with hoodmould and label stops. The west, north, and south faces carry round-headed chamfered belfry openings with slate louvres, renewed in the 19th century.

The small south porch has a coped gable with kneelers and an unmoulded 2-centred outer doorway. Its interior contains a 19th-century collar rafter roof and an unusual inner doorway of particular interest. The doorway has chamfered stopped jambs (probably recut or replaced during the 1880s restoration) supporting moulded imposts above which runs a straight lintel, possibly 13th century or earlier in origin. The lintel is decorated with short sections of cable moulding flanking three recut stylized flowers in roundels with recut fleur de lis between. A plain tympanum above contains a small rectangular block of volcanic stone carved with a crucifixion beneath a trefoil-headed arch, with figure carving visible below similar arches on the left and right returns. This carving does not appear to be in situ and dates probably to the 13th or 14th century; Pevsner suggests it may form part of a lantern cross.

Interior walls of the nave and chancel are rendered with remains of limewash visible on the tower interior. The chancel arch and tower arch are both products of the 1880s restoration, featuring double chamfering and springing from moulded corbels. The nave roof is a 4-bay arch-braced structure of the 1880s, springing from moulded timber corbels with a moulded wallplate. The chancel has a canted boarded waggon roof, also of the 1880s, with moulded wallplates, ribs, and carved bosses. Both nave and chancel feature 1880s tiling of unusual design, notably elaborate on the chancel step given the church's modest size.

Furnishings are modest in character. The church lacks a reredos, lectern, or pulpit. A timber altar rail features moulded standards and spandrels of pierced carving. A 19th-century reading desk incorporates barley sugar balusters that are likely reused medieval work. A 19th-century tower screen likewise features barley sugar balusters. Bench ends are square-headed and modest, probably of the 1880s, with moulded rails. A plain octagonal font bowl, probably 14th century, rests on a later octagonal stem beneath a 19th-century font cover of four crocketted pierced brackets with a crocketted finial. Two stained glass chancel windows date to 1888.

Three 18th-century slate headstones lie against the north boundary bank of the churchyard: one to William Dunn and two to daughters of Charles —rown and Thomas —rowne.

The saddleback tower and 14th-century east window represent unusual survivals within the county, although the tower has been thoroughly rebuilt and its medieval origin of the saddleback design cannot be certain.