Church (Consecration Unknown)

Parish Church of Unknown Consecration

This parish church dates from the 15th to early 16th centuries and was substantially restored in 1865-6. The building is constructed of stone rubble with a gable-ended slate roof and comprises a nave, long chancel, north aisle, west tower, and south porch.

The nave and tower may pre-date the Perpendicular period, but they display features mostly characteristic of the 15th century. The north aisle contains late 15th and early 16th-century windows, though these may result from remodelling rather than complete rebuilding. The 1865-6 restoration involved opening up the tower arch, reseating the interior, and rebuilding the south chancel wall. A 19th-century vestry was added to the north of the chancel.

The west tower is a three-stage structure with castellated parapet and short square pinnacles, corner buttresses rising to the top of the first stage, and a pentagonal stair turret on its south side. A late 19th-century doorway with shouldered head was inserted in the west face, and the three-light Perpendicular west window has been restored. A two-light belfry opening is now blocked.

The north aisle displays a blocked two-centred arched doorway at its west end. Its north face features five early 16th-century three-light stone mullion windows in relatively original condition. The two westernmost and easternmost windows contain two-centred lights, while the other two feature cinquefoil lights; all have square hoodmoulds. A Perpendicular east window serves the aisle, and a four-light east window in Decorated style has been completely restored. The chancel's south wall contains two 19th-century windows with cinquefoil heads and a restored Tudor-arched priest's door between them. The nave has a three-light early 16th-century window with four-centred tracery towards its west end and a 19th-century four-light window in 15th-century style towards the east end. The gabled south porch features a chamfered round-arched rubble doorway and carries a slate sundial in its gable dated 1641.

The interior retains a possibly 14th-century red sandstone south doorway with two-centred head and rebated hollow chamfer. A six-bay arcade of Pevsner A-type granite piers with moulded cup capitals and four-centred arches displaying hollow and roll moulding runs the length of the nave. A very tall similar two-centred tower arch fits awkwardly to the wall on either side, suggesting rebuilding has taken place here. The wagon roofs survive with simply moulded and chamfered ribs, carved bosses, and crenellated wall-plates to the nave.

The church contains a fine five-sided late 17th-century pulpit richly carved with festoons and angel heads, acanthus leaves in the frieze, and bolection-moulded panels. A 15th-century octagonal granite font features panels carved with quatrefoils, crosses, and other religious emblems. The Royal Coat of Arms on the north wall is unusually rendered in plaster relief with an angel head in the pediment above, flanked by columns with stiff-leaf capitals surmounted by obelisks bearing strapwork motifs in their pedestals—a curiously archaic design for the arms of George I and George II. A pedimented wall memorial of 1688 in the north aisle commemorates Abraham Bamfield Gent and incorporates a marble panel with columns either side. Several 18th-century floor memorials are located at the east end of the nave. The two sanctuary chairs incorporate probably French 17th-century carved panels depicting Christ bearing the cross and the descent from the cross. The altar features a carved wooden panel depicting Christ with the disciples at Emmaus.