
The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland

St Germanus (now)
Parish church
Rame is a hamlet of the civil parish of Marker-with-Rame about a mile SW of Cawsand, on the Rame Peninsula in SW Cornwall. The present church was consecrated in 1259, and probably replaced an earlier building. The structure was built in slatestone rubble with granite dressings, and the elements belonging to the 13thc consist of the chancel, the nave, the N transept, the spire and the upper part of the tower. By 1321 the tower arch and the S transept were completed. In the 15thc the rest of the structure was built, and the S aisle replaced the S transept. The N porch, the vestry and the N transept were built in the 19thc. The church was restored in 1845 and again in 1885. A 12thc tympanum has been reset on the W wall of the S aisle.
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
The parish is still the largest in Cornwall and the glory of the village is its huge Norman church, set in a hollow with a superb Norman doorway as its west front. The church is dedicated to St Germanus. The large church consists of a nave flanked by large N and S aisles, a large chanceland an imposing W front with two towers.
The essentially late 12thc church is an example of Norman planning. Its W front is flanked by towers, both of which are Norman in the lower parts. One of the upper parts is early English whilst the other is Perpendicular. Some Norman work remains in the body of the church but, for the most part, it is Perpendicular or Decorated.
Inside, on the first floor level, the towers were connected by a gallery, as indicated by two remaining doors. The staircase of the S tower is the only Cornish staircase of Norman date. The clerestory windows with zigzag ornament were discovered in 1904.
The S aisle is a mixture of four styles: the Norman of the first bays, imitation-Norman of probably 1592, the Dec of the E end, and the early 15thc. Perp of the rest The rest of the interior is late medieval and 19thc.
The ground floors of the towers were open to nave and aisles by transitional pointed arches of simplest design: two steps with an inserted roll moulding (cf. Morwenstow).