Description

SW 63 SW CROWAN CROWAN

4/146 Church of Saint Crewen
10.7.57
GV II*

Parish church. C15, incorporating some earlier fragments, much restored in 1872 by
J.P. St Aubyn; porch and south vestry transept probably later. Principally granite
ashlar with mostly C19 Perpendicular style granite windows. Porch and south transept
are rock-faced granite brought to course. Dry Delabole slate roofs with gable ends,
chancel gable coped. Stone chimney with paired round shafts over transept gable.
Plan : nave/chancel under one roof, west tower, north aisle with rood stair
projection, south aisle, C19 south vestry transept and south porch. The tower
survives virtually complete and unaltered but the rest of the church was heavily
restored in 1872 by J.P. St Aubyn. The C15 arcade and the principal plan layout
survives.
Fine C15 west tower of 3 stages, moulded plinth and strings dividing stages of
diminishing width, embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. Bracket-moulded C15.
4-centred arched doorway with 3-light Perpendicular window over. Clockface to south
wall of second stage and a 3-light slate louvred traceried Perpendicular window to
each side of the upper stage. Small slit window on north wall for stair in north-
west corner.
North aisle : 2-light west window with quatrefoil tracery. Old slender weathered
buttress at either side with ancient carved head over each. 3 heavily traceried
windows to the north wall, one left of the rood stair turret and 2 on the right.
Left of the left hand window is a narrower blocked 4-centred arched window opening.
Old slender weathered buttress on the right of this opening with carved head over and
wide C19 buttress on the left. There is a knitted joint near the left hand corner
and a datestone (1746) over, possibly when the gable end was rebuilt. 3-light C19
traceried east window.
Chancel gable projects beyond the vestry transept left, and north aisle gable, right.
C19 traceried east window and 2-light north window. There is a fragment of Norman
masonry built into the south east corner.
The south aisle has a transept returning at the right hand end and a porch on the far
left; 2 traceried 3-light windows between and relieving arches of original narrower
openings over. Transept has 3-light traceried south gable end window. Porch has
moulded 4-centred arched doorway. Inner doorway.
Interior : between the nave and north aisle is a C15 7-bay standard A (Pevsner)
arcade with steep 4-centred arches between. Steep 4-centred arched doorways to the
rood stair, tower arch, trefoil headed aumbry in the St Aubyn chapel (east end of
north aisle). Otherwise the features are C19: arch braced windbraced roof structures
and C19 glass in the C19 windows.
Fittings : curious repaired circa late mediaeval square granite font with round bowl
with roll moulded cornice and corners, and with pieces of new stonework set in; C19
column of 4 engaged shafts standing on a freely carved square-on-plan base with
entwined figures, set into a C19 octagonal granite slab. Otherwise C19 fittings:
polygonal pulpit on granite base, parclose screen between chancel and north aisle,
painted mosaic reredos depicting the Last Supper, granite sedilia with polished
granite shafts in the south wall of the chancel and several coloured glass memorial
windows (see monuments).
Monuments : in the north aisle are some ancient reset brasses circa 1400-1599 and
some fine stone monuments to members of the St Aubyn family including: Geoffrey St
Aubyn, c.1400, Geoffrey St Aubyn and wife, c.1490, and Thomas St Aubyn and wife,
C.1550 (Pevsner). The brasses (3) are reset in slate and difficult to decipher. The
stone monuments are C17, C18 and C19. The C17 wall monument has a male and female
figure within a Baroque aedicule with an open and broken pediment and Godolpin coat
of arms, below is an inscribed slab to Francis Godolphin of Treneneage Esquire buried
4th February 1652, who married Anne, daughter of Richard Carew of Anthony. 2 C18
monuments: a limestone chest with moulded base, recessed square carved corner
columns, panelled sides and moulded black marble lid to Sir John St Aubyn of
Clowance, Baronet, died 1714 aged 45 and a fine marble wall monument Ionic aedicule
with triangular pediment with dentilled cornice; framed within are 2 cherubs with
trophies and a central urn, Adam influence. Below is an inscribed plaque to Sir John
St Aubyn, baronet 1726-1772. Of the C19 is a marble wall monument carried on
enormous consoles with inscribed plaque between to Sir John St Aubyn of Clowance,
Baronet, 1758-1739, above is a mourning female figure in Grecian dress leaning on an
urn. Another marble Ionic aedicule with a dove in the typanum of the pediment, on
the north wall (west end), commemorates the restoration and reopening on the feast of
Saint James 1872. Credits to : J W Johns, vicar; T W Paynter, curate; Abraham and W
Carah, church wardens; J P St Aubyn, Architect; W Carah and W Edwards, builders.
Initials I H S at the bottom. Several memorial windows including: west window of
south aisle, given by George Hickman Johns BA in memory of his wife and west window
of north aisle to Henry Jenkin of Kerthen, 1860.
This church has suffered from a severe C19 restoration, with a fine C15 tower and
there are some good quality monuments.

Listing NGR: SW6458334495

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532119

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy