St Hilary, St Hilary Churchtown
St Hilary, St Hilary Churchtown
St Hilary’s is a Grade I church at St Hilary Churchtown, west Cornwall, dedicated to Hilary of Poitiers. A thirteenth-century west tower and broach spire survived a fire on Good Friday 1853; William White rebuilt the rest in 1855 in Early English style.
- Location
- St Hilary Churchtown, Cornwall
- Country
- England
- County
- Cornwall
- City / town
- St Hilary Churchtown
- Address
- The Avenue, St Hilary Churchtown, Cornwall, TR20 9DQ
- Postcode
- TR20 9DQ
- Built
- 13th-century tower; remainder rebuilt 1855 after a fire of 1853
- Architect
- William White
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Hilary
- Diocese
- Truro
- Parish
- St Hilary
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Early English
- Materials
- Granite and elvan rubble with granite dressings; dry scantle slate roofs
- Opening hours
- Church open during daylight hours. Heritage Centre is open May to end September Wednesdays 11am to 4pm (toilet also available) or by appointment (see contact details).
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England lists a tapered two-stage tower with a tall broach spire and a statue of St Hilary on the south-east face, weathered buttresses, and a pointed west doorway. White rebuilt the nave and chancel with a lantern over the crossing, slightly shorter aisles, shallow transepts and a deep south porch, in granite and elvan rubble with granite dressings and scantle slate roofs. The interior has a fourteenth-century tower arch and unaltered nineteenth-century five-bay arcades. Survivals include a Roman milestone to Constantine, a thirteenth-century granite font reused as a piscina, and a fourteenth-century statue of St Anne.
In the 1920s and 1930s Father Bernard Walke commissioned a decorative scheme from Newlyn School painters including Ernest Procter, Harold Harvey, Norman Garstin, Harold Knight and others. That ensemble, and Walke’s high-church ministry, underpin the Grade I listing. The St Hilary Heritage Centre occupies space beneath the school room.