Church of St Rumon, Ruan Major

Summary

Former Anglican parish church. The chancel is considered to be thirteenth century, the tower late fourteenth century, the south porch and south arcade fifteenth century, and north arcade slightly earlier; the church was extensively remodelled between 1866 and 1867 including the removal of the aisles (architect unknown). The church closed for worship in 1956, and the roof was removed between 1964 and 1966. The building is redundant and roofless in 2026.

Reasons for Designation

The Church of St Rumon, Ruan Major, Cornwall, C15 with earlier origins, remodelled in the 1860s, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* the church retains significant fabric from the C13 to C15 providing material evidence of its origins and early history;
* the tower is strongly comparable to other listed churches in the area, and the chequerboard use of Serpentine stone from the Lizard and Cornish granite add to its distinctiveness;
* the roofless church presents as a curious relic which is enhanced by its rural location;

Historic interest:
* as an early medieval site associated with the Irish saint Rumon who is represented at other ecclesiastical locations in Cornwall and Devon;
* the pre-1860 form and features of the church were well-documented by JT Blight in the C19, which contributes to our understanding of its development;

Group value:
* with the neighbouring Grade II-listed Ruan Major Farmhouse.

History

Within the modern parish of Grade-Ruan on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall lie the historic ecclesiastical parishes of Ruan Minor, Grade and Ruan Major; today’s parish church is located at Grade. Named for the Irish saint Rumon whose relics were taken from the Celtic monastery at Ruan Lanihorne on the Roseland peninsula to Tavistock Abbey in AD 981, a church at Ruan Minor was first mentioned in 1277 as Sanctus Romunus Parvus (‘little St Rumon’) to ironically distinguish it from the much smaller settlement and church at Ruan Major. Never more than a farmstead, Ruan Major was first recorded in 1250, but a church was dedicated there in 1207.

Whilst little is known about the early history of a church at Ruan Major, the antiquarian JT Blight’s observations from when he visited the church in the early 1860s (see Sources) are key to understanding how it stood before an extensive remodelling between 1866 and 1867. The chancel, possibly C13 and considered to be the earliest part of the church, had a lancet window on the north and south walls, with a later three-light ogee window to the east. The south aisle, added in the C15, had two Decorated two-light windows, one with a trefoil head, whilst the other three windows were Perpendicular. The north aisle is considered contemporary to, or earlier, than the south aisle, and Blight states that the east wall of the north aisle, with brackets for an altar, is the newest. The rood loft entrance was described as eight-feet wide, whilst the rood screen survived across the chancel and north aisle; one of the carvings depicted traditional craftsman’s tools. Amongst other details, Blight observed ‘peculiar features’ at the junction of the nave and chancel arcades, which he also illustrated. In the early C20 the architect Edmund H Sedding hypothesised from the evidence then surviving that these might have been hagioscopes (squints), whilst Blight suggested they related to chantry altars; Pevsner (2014) notes that they are likely to have been part of the rood screen arrangement. Blight continues with a description of the tower, including its ‘black and white’ ashlar formed from blocks of serpentine and coarse granite, with finer granite used for dressings. He describes the jambs to the C15 outer porch being octagonal and panelled. Blight also compared the church to St Grade, concluding that both churches were built in 1400. Sedding considered that its upper stage of the tower with its crenelations and pinnacles may have been added in the C15.

The church was remodelled between 1866 and 1867. The north and south aisles were removed, bringing the chancel into the main body of the church. The north aisle arcade was blocked in to create the north wall of the nave and the south aisle windows reset in the south wall of the reconfigured nave, although these were later infilled. The porch was repositioned against the southern external wall of the nave. The east wall was partially rebuilt to include a stained-glass Crucifixion window with plate-tracery in a voussoired red brick surround. In 1888 a pinnacle on the tower was broken by lightning, leading to the restoration of the tower. A brass First World War memorial tablet was erected on the north wall facing the south door in 1920.

Regular services at the church of St Rumon ceased in 1941. When Sir Nikolaus Pevsner visited in 1947, he found it ‘so little visited that a white owl was nesting in the timbers of the south porch roof’; remnants of the rood screen remained in place at this time. The church was closed for worship in 1956.

A photograph from the early 1960s of the interior of the church looking east shows a timber barrel-vaulted roof over a combined nave and chancel. The chancel is defined by a granite step and the floor laid with C19 quarry tiles. The arcade to the north and windows to the south are blocked in, and memorial plaques are mounted within the north wall arcade. The walls are plastered, although the arcade piers, arches and capitals are clearly granite. An octagonal stone font is positioned by the south door, which is planked and braced. Church fittings including a timber pulpit, reading desk and pews appear to be mid-C19; no altar is shown.

The roof of the church was removed between 1964 and 1966. In 1970 the C19 font (carved in a C14 style) was relocated to outside the church porch at Ruan Minor. A photograph from 1984 of the roofless church, looking west, shows the south arcade windows unblocked; it is unknown when this occurred. The west door into the tower can be seen, with a traceried window above. A memorial appears extant on the south wall of the tower.

Details

Former Anglican parish church. The chancel is considered to be C13, the tower late C14, the south porch and south arcade C15, and north arcade slightly earlier; the church was extensively remodelled between 1866 and 1867 including the removal of the aisles (architect unknown). The church closed for worship in 1956, and the roof was removed between 1964 and 1966. The building is redundant and roofless in 2026.

MATERIALS: randomly coursed granite to nave and chancel; large ashlar blocks of serpentine and granite in tower.

PLAN: nave and chancel in one (no aisles), west tower and south porch.

EXTERIOR: the church is a mix of Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The west tower is late C14, unbuttressed and constructed from alternating ashlar blocks of granite and serpentine. It rises in two stages with bold string courses to a crenelated parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The west doorway has chamfered granite jambs and a granite two-part segmental head with an inner moulding below banded voussoirs. Above this is a three-light window with reticulated tracery under a three-centred arch with banded voussoirs, and a granite cill and jambs. The belfry stage has three-centred arch openings with two cusped lights with slate louvres on each face. On the south elevation is a gabled porch (rebuilt in the C19) with an external doorway comprising a moulded three-centred arch on polygonal engaged shafts carved with cusped blind tracery; the carved capitals are eroded. Inside the porch, on the south wall of the nave (originally the south arcade), the main entrance door has a moulded granite three-centred arch with carved spandrels and granite jambs. The south elevation of the nave has three C15 two-light windows (relocated from the removed south aisle elevation); two windows have trefoil heads. The east elevation has a mid-C19 sandstone plate-tracery window above a granite cill band; the window has three quatrefoils within a roundel above three cusped lights and is set within a pointed arch with red-brick voussoirs and a brick drip-mould. The north elevation is blind.

INTERIOR: the north wall comprises the infilled six-bay arcade to the former north aisle, comprising round arches with concave curves; piers with three attached shafts with hollows in the diagonal (Pevsner type A), the fourth shaft being subsumed in the infilled arches); and simply moulded capitals. The south wall comprises three pointed-arch window bays and the entrance door bay, set within the original south arcade, which is almost the same as the north arcade. The window reveals are in C19 red brick and some C19 (or later) render remains. The closely set columns between the chancel and nave, described by Blight and Sedding, survive at the second arcade pier from the east. The surround to the chancel window (east) has a banded sandstone and red brick pointed head with a diagonally inset line of bricks creating a toothed border, and jambs in red brick. A stained-glass Crucifixion window survives, as do stone steps to the chancel. The tower arch to the west is corbelled. There is a white marble memorial plaque to Alexander Pengilly of Trerise (d.1910) fixed to the south wall of the tower. No other ecclesiastical furniture survives.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

64629

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, (1951), 182
Sedding, H, Norman Architecture in Cornwall: A Handbook to Old Cornish Ecclesiastical Architecture, (1909), 351-352
Blight, JT, Churches and Antiquities of West Cornwall, (1885 2nd ed.), 88-95
Warner, M, A Time to Build, (2022), 296
Beacham, P, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, (2014), 297

Websites
Heritage Gateway: Cornwall & Scilly Historic Environment Record, accessed 31/10/2025 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO6427&resourceID=1020
Historic England Archive: interior view looking along the nave towards the altar in the derelict St Rumon’s Church (1960-1966), accessed 31/10/2025 from https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/OP35297

End of official list entry

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