Description

BODMIN

SX0767 PRIORY ROAD
629-1/2/96 (North side)
24/03/49 Church of St Petroc

GV I

Parish church. Part of tower Norman, otherwise 1469-72,
restored 1814, 1867, 1888 and 1930.
MATERIALS: local squared and coursed stone with granite and
freestone dressings; dry slate roofs.
PLAN: 6-bay nave; 3-bay chancel; north and south aisles; north
tower at junction between nave and chancel and 2-storey south
porch.
EXTERIOR: much retooled or refaced in C19 but incorporating
outer granite frames of C15 windows and some C15 tracery. West
end partly rebuilt in C19 when a Norman doorway was replaced
by present 4-centred arched doorway; 5-light Perpendicular
style window above and coped gable; 2 flanking octagonal stair
turrets and gable ends of N & S aisles, each with large window
in Perpendicular style. Embattled S elevation has 2-storey
porch to 2nd bay: 4-centred arched doorway; strings above
ground floor and below parapet; niches to 1st floor of front.
Priest's door towards right. Central bay of E wall much
rebuilt late C19. N tower contains Norman masonry to lower
stage: small windows.
INTERIOR: C15 waggon roof to chancel aisle with 1471 date
painted on, otherwise replaced in C19; tall standard A
(Pevsner) granite arcade piers with depressed 2-centred arches
and 3 basket arches between east and west end; flat plastered
walls. Porch has remains of stone fan-vaulted ceiling, a rare
feature in Cornwall.
FITTINGS: good quality C12 font with deep granite bowl on
short shaft, slender corner shafts with busts of angels on
capitals, decorated with carved foliage and scrolls, animals
and trees-of-life; 3 piscina including C15 octagonal cresset
by S door; late C15 bench ends and rood screen panels
incorporated into rood screen, some bench ends reused in choir
stalls and desk; 1932 reredos by Sir Charles Nicholson
incorporating some original 1491 Mathley More Panels; carved
oak pulpit with panels and later embellished base partly of
choir stalls; C18 elvan fragment of former lantern cross; two
c1500 double-sided German painted panels on piers; lectern
incorporating C15 carved oak misereres; C17 carved oak chair,
and a fragment of C15 painted wood. The Bodmin Casket, C12 of
ivory is set into S wall of S aisle, possibly the casket in
which the remains of St Petroc were handed back to the Prior
of Bodmin in 1177.
MONUMENTS: a free-standing monument between chancel and N
aisle to Thomas Vivian, one of the last priors of Bodmin
d.1533, of black Catacleuse stone and grey marble recumbent
effigy on chest decorated with figures of the Evangelists,
cherubs with shields; slate slab to Richard Durant d.1632;
another to Peter Bolt d.1633, depicting his 2 wives and 13
children, others to Bernard Flamank 1658, Elizabeth Bernard
and by Neville Burnard to Alice, daughter of William and Ann
Webb of Altarnum, died 19.9.1833 aged 3 years 3 months; wall
marble to Michael Bennet d.1821, by William Behnes, another to
Captain Oakely, d.1835 also by Behnes; various late C18 and
early C19 wall marbles including a group to the Gilbert family
at E end of S chancel aisle.
MEMORIAL GLASS: 1859 to John D Watkins (N wall of chancel
aisle) d.1846 aged 69 and his wife Loveday d.1857 aged 78;
another to E end to E of chancel (inscriptions inaccessible at
time of survey); Clara, wife of Walter Raleigh Gilbert of the
Priory (qv) daughter of John Michael Williams of Caerhays (E
end of S chancel aisle) 1869-1884, fitted 3.10.1884; windows
dated 1880, 1898 and to William Robert Kirke d.1868 aged 60,
all to S wall of S chancel aisle and several windows to the
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry including one over war
memorial in N aisle and one to Captain William Henry Liddle,
also 2 windows to W end.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Radcliffe E:
Cornwall: London: 1970-: 41-43; Kelly: Kelly's Directory of
Cornwall: London: 1902-: 34 & 35; Wilkinson Rev J J: The
Building of Bodmin Church 1469-72: 1874-).

Listing NGR: SX0731667032

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 30 October 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Petroc's Parish Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15201909

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)