Church of St Petroc, Bodmin
Introduction
The Church of St Petroc is the largest parish church in Cornwall and arguably the most
important. Bodmin also had an Augustinian friary church belonging to an extensive friary
complex from which only a few fragments of dressed masonry remain, but extensive
foundations must survive underground. Except for a Norman north tower, the whole church
was rebuilt to a single design and one phase of construction between 1469 and 1472. It may
not be the earliest example of Perpendicular architecture but it is the earliest example of the
creation of a church design with high parallel aisles to the full length of the building, thus
creating a plan form that became the aspiration for so many parish churches, many of which
had only completed part of their ambition by the time of the Reformation. Until the 19 th
century there was a Norman doorway central to the west wall but this had presumably been
re-used from the older church.
Building Description
Date
The church was rebuilt to its present form between 1469 and 1472, except for its Norman
tower. The upper stage of the tower was rebuilt after the spire was destroyed in 1699. There
have been several restorations to the church including: 1814, 1867, 1888 and 1930.
Materials
The church is built from finely dressed and coursed freestone, much of which has eroded
badly resulting in extensive 19th century re-facing. Granite has been used sparingly as it was a
very expensive material when the church was built despite the proximity of the building to
granite upland of Bodmin Moor. The plinth copings and string courses are granite as are
some of the outer frames of the windows. Most of the windows have needed extensive repair
and replacement of freestone components where they had become too eroded to retain. The
east windows are 19th century. The roofs are dry-laid with Delabole slate from the last phase
of restoration.
Plan development
The tower is located on higher ground at the north side of the church and may originally have
been a detached tower. It is Norman but retains no obvious Norman architectural features,
the small slit windows having been embellished later. Otherwise the nave and its flanking
aisles were all built as one extended building phase. The chancel projects slightly at the east
end. These are all of similar width and height, and chancel and its flanking aisles all under
lower roofs. The south porch is, uniquely in Cornwall, three storeys and is the focal point of
the south wall. There have been no later extensions.
Exterior
Despite much re-facing of stonework and window repairs the church makes a dramatic
statement of quality and status partly due to its unusual height but also its large windows and
imposing porch. All the walls are surmounted by battlements but there are no buttresses
except for slender clasping buttresses to the upper stage of the tower. The windows exhibit
two main types of Perpendicular tracery, the type with panelled tracery, and the more
obviously Perpendicular type with vertical tracery, both types widely copied elsewhere in
Cornwall at the end of the 15th century and the most Perpendicular type (north wall of north
chancel aisle) until the Reformation.
The porch has a moulded pointed-arch doorway with two orders of nook shafts, but with no
hood-mould but there is a string course above. A 2-light window above the doorway has a
square hood-mould and sunk spandrels, anticipating the Tudor style. There are similar singlelight window to the two upper floors of the return elevations, all with cinquefoil-headed
lights and under round relieving arches. Located flanking the south window and centrally
above is a stepped composition of statue niches. In the angle right of the porch is an
octagonal stair turret.
The 4-light south windows of the south aisle and south chancel aisle are identical in design
with 4-centred arched heads and hood-moulds under relieving arches. The panelled tracery
incorporates lozenges. There is one window left of the porch, three windows equally-spaced
right of the porch and another window at far right. Central between this window and the
window to its left is a priest’s doorway with 4-centred arched head and square hood-mould.
The west font makes a powerful three-gable statement but was the subject of much
restoration in the 19th century including the replacement of a central Norman window with a
granite Tudor style doorway. Above the doorway is large 5-light window with large lozenges
to its tracery. On either side of the west doorway are identical octagonal stair turrets for
access to a west gallery and also perhaps to the valleys between the parallel roofs. The west
window of the north aisle is a 5-light window with lozenges in the tracery at either side. The
west window of the south aisle is a very large 6-light window. This is a scaled up version of
the south windows and also has lozenges to its tracery.
The five north windows west of the tower are similar to the windows of the south aisle. The
second window from the west has its sill at a higher level due to the moulded 4-centred
arched north doorway being sited under its left-hand side. The three 3-light windows east of
the tower are stylistically pure Perpendicular in style. Perhaps this was the last phase of the
building to be constructed. However, it is sometimes misleading to link complexity of design
with date. These windows with less complex tracery are more likely to denote lower status to
this part of the building.
The east windows have been the subject of major restoration or reconstruction. The gables
have been rebuilt. The chancel projects forward from the aisles, and has a large 5-light
window within a moulded granite 4-centred arched frame. The east window of the south
chancel aisle is an equally large 6-light window with granite jamb-stones. The east window
of the north chancel aisle is a smaller 4-light window.
Interior
St Petroc’s Church has a very lofty and light interior. The building is the longest parish
church in Cornwall with nine arcade bays of white granite: six to the nave and three to the
chancel with no break between them except that there are chancel and chancel aisle arches
springing from the piers that divide the east and west ends. The arcades are both tall and wide
with standard A (Pevsner) section piers with lightly carved capitals and moulded 4-centred
(or depressed 2-centred) arches. There are oak wagon roofs throughout, all with moulded ribs
and purlins and carved wall-plates and bosses. The roof in the south chancel aisle is original
with the date 1471 painted on. The other roofs are the result of 19th century restoration and
replication Walls are plastered throughout. There is a wide doorway to the narthex under the
west gallery and access to the west stair turrets. West of the south doorway is a moulded
granite 4-centred arched doorway providing access to the rooms within the 3-storey porch.
There is a pointed-arched doorway to the tower in the north wall. There is a piscina in the
chancel and an octagonal cresset set into the south wall east of the south doorway.
The porch has a stone fan-vaulted ceiling, unique in Cornwall.
There is some good memorial glass including: 1859 Watkins window to north wall of north
chancel aisle; the east window of the chancel, 1884 Gilbert (nee Williams); window to east
end of south chancel aisle; three windows in south wall of south chancel aisle dated 1880,
1898 and 1868 in the south wall of the south chancel aisle; a window to south wall at west
end of south aisle, two windows in the west end and several windows to the Duke of
Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
Fittings
Fittings include the best Norman font in Cornwall. This has a large round bowl on a shirt
shaft and busts of angels on capitals over corner shafts. The rood screen, fronting the east
chancel aisles, is 19th century but contains early 16th century rood screen panels and bench
ends. Some more bench ends of similar date are re-used in the choir stalls, reredos and desk.
The octagonal pulpit is mentioned in 1491 but has been re-worked in the 19th century and
incorporates panels from the old choir stalls in its square base. There are two c1500 painted
double-sided panels from a former triptych hanging from the arcade piers west of the south
doorway. These depict the ‘entry into Jerusalem’, ‘Ecce homo’, ‘Christ in limbo’ and the
‘raising of Lazarus’. Set into the south wall is a casket that is said to have once contained the
bones of Saint Petroc.
Monuments
There is a free-standing Catecleuse stone and grey marble effigy on chest, decorated with
figures of the Evangelists, plus cherubs and shields, between the chancel and north chancel
aisle to Thomas Vyvyan, who died in 1533, and was the last but one prior of Bodmin (also
Bishop of Megara, in Greece). This is one of the finest pre-Reformation monuments in
Cornwall. There are three slate slabs: one to Richard Durant who died in 1632, another to
Peter Bolt who died in 1633.depicting his two wives and thirteen children, and one to
Bernard Flamank who died in 1658. There are also many wall monuments, most of them 18 th
century or later including a group to the Gilbert family. Perhaps the most poignant is a large
marble panelled memorial in the north wall to soldiers of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light
Infantry
Context
The situation of the Church of St Petroc is at the north-east corner of the old town of Bodmin.
East of the church is the 14th century ruin of the Chapel of St Thomas Becket, a rare 14th
century building to survive in Cornwall. Adjoining the churchyard wall south of the west
entrance gate, with its long flight of granite steps, is the Holy Well of St Petroc dated 1545
and altered since but on the site of a well mentioned in the 12th century ‘Life of St Petroc’.
The well consists of two main parts: to the west an open sump with walls surmounted by
battlements on two sides in the form of a public watering place but with iron railings on the
two open sides, and with re-used grotesque gargoyle heads as spouts. A return wall on the
right incorporates an opening with two turned shafts re-used as jambs. Within the churchyard
is St Guron’s Well, a small dressed granite well-house possibly of 15th century origin but
appears to have been totally rebuilt, and possibly re-designed, in the 19th century, but
incorporating old stone fragments including a 4-centred arched doorway and with a carved
panel above. It is quite common for holy wells to be constructed from a miscellany of
architectural fragments left over from church repairs or demolition. Near the ‘replica’ well is
an octagonal arcade pier, presumed to have come from the 14th century friary church. To the
south of the church is the site of the former friary buildings, part of which is now occupied by
the 18th century 3-storey Priory House. The Vicarage has a late 19th century or early 20th
century character at the front but has an 18th century core. The church is built against ground
sloping up to the north, adjoining sloping land that continues to rise to the edge of Bodmin
Moor. The town was once the county town of Cornwall and has many important public
buildings, including: the 17th century former guildhall (now a shop); 1832 former Assize
Court (Shire Hall); c1840 Shire House (former judges lodgings); Bodmin Gaol (present
buildings 1840s-1855); The militia buildings of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
including the Keep of 1859, and the former St Lawrence Hospital buildings from 1818. The
144 feet high obelisk, Gilbert’s Monument (to Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert), of 1856 on a
hilltop south of the town advertises Bodmin from a great distance. The Gilberts have long
been a prominent family in Bodmin. Their principal residence is the fine 17th and 18th century
house called Lancarffe just outside the town and they have several monuments in the church.
Discussion
The Church of St Petroc is considered to be an exemplar church in Cornwall, a building that
inspired architectural fashion and plan form throughout the county. Because its plan form and
late Gothic features were so widely copied after its construction the church at Bodmin now
seems more typical. However, it was probably the first to be designed with tall aisles the full
length of the church. Most parishes copied this design, usually adapting their older buildings
in a piecemeal way as they could afford it, often adding only one aisle first, not always
demolishing their transepts and not always adding chancel aisles. Many churches were never
completed and so retain Norman north or south walls, rarely they retain both, as at Tintagel.
The earlier churches were progressively made over into more modern, lighter, taller
buildings, and by extension, were able to accommodate larger congregations. At the time of
their reconstruction at the end of the 15th century and until work generally stopped at the time
of the Reformation, the changes must have seemed awesome. There seems to have been little
nostalgia or affection for the older parts of the buildings that were replaced. These were
probably considered to be too poorly lit and too small. As a result of all these changes the
county now has parish churches with a predominantly late 15th century or early 16th century
character. The oldest surviving roofs survive from this period, all wagon roofs, and there are
many other fixtures fittings that enable some visualisation of our pre-Reformation churches.
In Cornwall, the church at Bodmin was probably the model from which all this frenzy of
building followed.