St Nicholas, Looe
St Nicholas, Looe
St Nicholas is the Grade II* parish church of West Looe, Cornwall, a small harbour-side church that has also served as guildhall, prison and school.
- Location
- Looe, Cornwall
- Country
- England
- County
- Cornwall
- City / town
- Looe
- Address
- Quay Road, Looe, Cornwall, PL13 2DA
- Postcode
- PL13 2DA
- Built
- C12 or C13; altered C16; restored 1852 and 1862
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Nicholas
- Diocese
- Truro
- Parish
- St Martin with East and West Looe
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Medieval with Victorian restoration
- Materials
- Rubble walls; dry slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SX 254 532
- Opening hours
- Open all year 9.30am to 5.30pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England dates the fabric to the twelfth or thirteenth century, with probable sixteenth-century alteration and restorations in 1852 and 1862. Walls are rubble under dry slate roofs; a west tower has a pyramidal roof. A possibly twelfth-century round-headed west doorway of volcanic stone survives, with a thirteenth-century lancet above and a twelfth-century font carved with cable and dog-tooth ornament. The church was listed Grade II* on 19 March 1951 (list entry 1201132).
Parish tradition records an endowment on 11 July 1336, confirmed by Bishop Grandisson of Exeter. In the Commonwealth the chapel became West Looe’s guildhall; it returned briefly to worship under Charles II, then served again as guildhall and prison until 1852. Restoration under the vicar Mr Seymour and John Francis Buller of Morval, supervised by Captain C. Cocks, added a north aisle and reopened the church on All Saints’ Day 1852. The listing notes a three-bay arcade of reused ships’ timbers.
The church is in the parish of St Martin with East and West Looe, Diocese of Truro.