Details
SX 15 SW FOWEY FOWEY
868/2/60 Church of St Fimbarrus or
St Nicholas
(Formerly listed as:
13.03.1951 FOWEY
Church of St Fimbarrus)
GV I
Parish church. Re-dedicated (after presumed rebuilding) 1336, remodelled, extended, re-roofed and re-fenestrated in the C15 and restored in 1876. Slatestone rubble with freestone and granite dressings; dry Oelabole slate roofs to nave/chancel, with coped E gable, and N aisle; otherwise lead to flat roofs; rubble and brick stack over vestry.
PLAN: C14 nave/chancel and N aisle; (15 S aisle, S porch, W tower and rebuilding of E end of chancel; old vestry in NE corner; (20 flat-roofed vestry to NW corner.
EXTERIOR: buttressed and embattled S aisle, S porch and tower, the tower buttresses set back from the corners; C15 traceried windows to clerestory, tower and to S aisle window left of the porch, the other windows are C19 copies or restored. The 2-storey south porch has a 4-centred arched doorway of 3 orders to each end of its axial through passage. Tower is tall, of 4 stages and has 2 bands of ornament (cusped and crested) to plinth and to the strings dividing the stages; crocketted corner pinnacles. N aisle is sandwiched between the nave and close to the perimeter wall of Place House (qv) and there are flying buttresses between the aisle and the wall.
INTERIOR: rare C14 4-bay arcades between nave and aisles with plain octagonal piers and steep pointed chamfered arches of 2 orders; plastered walls with exposed stone C15 chamfered rear arches and colonnettes; pointed tower arch of 3 chamfered orders; fine restored C15 waggon roof over the nave with carved principal trusses, under purlins and bosses and repaired C15 flat ceiling with moulded cross and axial beams forming panels. There is a C15 rood stair with its original doorways on the north side of the original rood position. Porch has an 8-ribbed stone vault and a doorway to the stair n the SE corner giving access to the room above. FITTINGS: C12 or early C13 round Catecleuse stone font with star and anthemion decoration; fine carved oak pulpit of 1601; painted letter above S doorway from Charles I from his camp at Sudeley Castle the loth September 1643; C18 painted board with pictures of bell-ringers and another painted panel in the tower; late C19 or early C20 rood screen in the style of a C15 rood screen and C19 pitch-pine pews with panelled backs and shaped ends; other fittings mostly C20.
MONUMENTS: many fine wall monuments including (clockwise, starting half-way along N wall): Perpendicular Gothic style monument to Frances, wife of the Rev. John Kempe, died 1840 aged 70, also Louise, daughter of the Rev. G H Kempe and Sophia, his wife, 1840-1855; small marble monument with broken pediment to Thomas Rashleigh of Coombe ( qv), died 1662 aged 67; large marble and freestone monument with broken pediment to centre and with carved mother and children flanked by women and with scrolled baluster buttresses to John Rashleigh, died 1624 aged 70; a carved marble panel within a moulded plaster frame with a Latin inscription; 2 monuments within window reveal to Mary, daughter of Jonathan Rashleigh of Menabilly (qv) and Sarah, daughter of Richard Hiller, died 1664; a cartouche of 1683 with broken pediment and coat of arms; a gilded and painted cartouche to William Toller, died 1634; a mon. to John Treffry giving details of property settlement; an urn on a chest to Susannah wife of Thomas Graham, died 1779 aged 78 and Thomas Graham, died 1792 aged 65, also a grave slab with 3 knights in armour inscribed "YE FIRST YEAR OF THE RAYNG OF KYING HENRY THE EYGHTH, HERE LIE THE BODYES OF SIR JOHN TREFFRY, KNYGHT, WILLIAM TREFFRY & THOMAS."
BRASSES: 2 floor brasses near the pulpit, one to Alice, wife of John Rashleigh, died 1591, the other with inscription missing and 2 brasses in the E window of the S aisle.
GLASS: W window of S aisle to Annie Ellen Purcell, daughter of Edward John and Anne Treffry. This church has many fine features: the S porch and the W tower are unusual and the C14 arcades are extremely rare in Cornwall.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Cornwall: London: 1990-: 70).
Listing NGR: SX1252951705
