Details
BOTUS FLEMING BOTUS FLEMING
SX 46 SW
6/13 Church of St Mary
23.1.68
GV II*
Parish church. C15, with later C15 tower; C19 restoration. Devon limestone rubble;
tower roughcast. Granite dressings. Slate roofs with crested ridge tiles.
Plan: Nave and chancel in one, with south porch to nave. North aisle. West tower of
later C15. Perpendicular style.
Nave and chancel in one, of 4 bays; porch in bay to west. There is a projection on
the south wall for the rood stair and a plain buttress at the east end. The nave has
one window, of C15, in granite, 3-light, with cusped lights, tracery and hollow-
moulded surround. Chancel has 2 C19 2-light windows with 4-centred arch and
quatrefoil, window to east formerly a door. The chancel east end has 3-light granite
C15 window with cusped lights, upper tracery, 4-centred arch and hood mould.
South porch has outer doorway with rounded head and roll and hollow mouldings; slate
sundial set over doorway with gnomon, erected by the churchwardens in 1787. Interior
of porch has floor of 2 C18 ledger stones in slate, to the Pemberton family, of 1773
and 1789. Inner 4-centred arched doorway with similar mouldings, C19 door with strap
hinges.
North aisle has C15 granite east window of 3 lights, with cusped lights, tracery and
4-centred arch. Slate tablet on wall to Henry Leigh, 1791. The north side has three
3-light granite windows, as to east, with the central light taller; similar west
window.
West tower in 3 stages, with diagonal weathered buttresses, moulded plinth, string
courses and tall embattled parapet with pinnacles and weathervane to north west.
West doorway has 4-centred arch, with roll and hollow mouldings, recessed spandrels
with quatrefoils and square hood mould; C19 door with strap hinges. 3-light west
window with cusped lights, central light taller, and Perpendicular tracery, with hood
mould continued as string course. Chamfered single light at second stage to west and
east. Third stage has 3-light bell-openings with cusped lights and Perpendicular
tracery and louvres. Lancets to north for stair. On the south side, a slate tablet
to Grace Keen, 1783.
Interior: Re-roofed in late C19, with arched brace roofs re-using earlier bosses,
probably of C15. Slate floor partly remaining, with some C19 tiles. Plastered
walls. 4-centred tower arch with Pevsner A-type piers and capitals with moulded
abaci. Tower has segmental-arched north doorway to stair. 5-bay arcade between the
nave and the aisle, with octagonal piers on moulded bases, capitals with fleuron
frieze on the abaci; 2 piers have image brackets, a third pier with an image stand
with moulded hood. Nave has segmental-arched doorway, chamfered, to rood stair;
stair blocked. Chancel has C19 cusped piscina and aumbry. North aisle has small
pointed arched piscina.
Fittings: Font in nave, probably C14, Purbeck table-top type, with square bowl with
flat blank niches with pointed heads to each side. C19 wooden pews and pulpit in
nave. Stocks, probably C16 or C17, in porch.
Monuments: In north aisle: in a recess in the north wall, the stone effigy of a
knight, possibly late C14-early C15, probably one of the Moditons, with crossed legs
and carrying a shield. Oval marble tablet on slate ground, with pediment, by Isbell
of Stonehouse, to William Symon, 1766. Marble tablet on slate ground, to William
Symons, 1832. Marble tablet with eared architrave and festoons of fruit to sides,
pediment, to Mark Batt, 1753. In chancel: marble tablet on slate ground, to William
Spry, 1842; stone tablet with egg and dart moulded architrave, apron with crossed
palms, draped flaming urn to top, by Jno. Rd. Veale of Plymouth, to Elizabeth Bray,
1747.
Windows lattice glazed, with late C19 or early C20 stained glass in the chancel
windows.
Sources: Pevsner, E.: Buildings of England: Cornwall 1970.
Listing NGR: SX4035161284
