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St Sidwell and St Gulval, Laneast, Cornwall

Location
(50°37′40″N, 4°30′24″W)
Laneast
SX 228 839
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Cornwall
now Cornwall
medieval Exeter
now Truro
  • Richard Jewell
14 Apr 1990, 25 Aug 1991

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Feature Sets
Description

The northern half of the cruciform Norman church remains, although much rebuilt; the E window of the N transept retains its original jambs and sill, and inside arch. The font is the only Romanesque sculptural feature.

History

Laneast was founded as a chapelry by the Augustinian Priory of Launceston and St Stephens-by Launceston, the original priory church, remained its mother church until the Reformation, as it did of many other churches in and around Launceston.

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

Sedding suggested that the missing corner head could have been due to a flaw in the stone or an accident by the mason; and that perhaps the block of stone had been so damaged in transport that he could not make the font square. Certainly the situation of the village would have made the delivery of such a stone extremely difficult, just as it made burial of the dead a grim chore for the villagers, who were until 1436 compelled to use the cemetery of St Stevens-by-Launceston.

Bibliography

P. Beacham and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cornwall (New Haven and London 2014), pp. 268-69.

C. Henderson, The Cornish Church Guide (London 1925), p. 103.

A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, vol. III (Truro and London 1870), pp. 1-3.

N. Pevsner and E. Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, 2nd ed (Harmondsworth 1970), pp. 88-89.

E. H. Sedding, Norman Architecture in Cornwall: A Handbook to old Cornish ecclesiastical architecture with notes on ancient manor houses (London and Truro 1909), pp. 188-90.