The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Olaf (medieval)
Parish church
Poughill is a small village about one mile NE of Bude. The church lies in the centre of the village, but nothing remains of the original Norman building above ground as in 1928 the foundations of a cruciform, aisleless structure were brought to light. The present structure consist of a chancel, a nave and a N aisle, all built in the 14thc, a S aisle, a S porch and a W tower, which were erected in the 15thc, and a N vestry added in the 19thc. The only surviving Romanesque pieces are the plain, uncarved water stoup in the S porch, the plain, unsculpted bowl found outside the porch, and the carved font in the W tower.
site of former church
By 1726 the fabric of the church was ruinous. Latterly it was used as a dwelling house and in 1855 Henry Dryden described what was left of the church itself, which included the S doorway and aumbry, and remains of a stoup or piscina. The pre-Reformation, on-site doorway seems to have been moved to its present location by John Reid, who bought the property. By 1896, the building was being used as a carpenter’s shop and warehouse.