St Mabyn Parish Church
| St Mabyn Parish Church | |
|---|---|
St. Mabyn Parish Church, St.Mabyn
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| Coordinates: 50°31′32″N 4°45′50″W / 50.52556°N 4.76389°W | |
| OS grid reference | SX 042 732 |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | St Mabyn Church website |
| History | |
| Dedication | Mabyn |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed |
| Designated | 6 June 1969 |
| Administration | |
| Parish | St Mabyn, Cornwall |
| Deanery | Trigg Minor |
| Archdeaconry | Bodmin |
| Diocese | Truro |
| Province | Canterbury |
St Mabyn Church is a Grade I listed late 15th-century Church of England parish church in St Mabyn, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The church is dedicated to Saint Mabyn or Mabena, who was regarded in local tradition as one of the many children of Brychan, a Welsh saint and King of Brycheiniog in the 5th century.
The current church replaced an earlier one also dedicated to Mabyn. Mabyn is listed alongside several other local saints with churches dedicated to them in the 12th-century Life of Saint Nectan, suggesting that the earlier church had already been established at that time.
A dendrochronology report gives construction dates of 1513–35 for the north aisle, 1485–1514 for the nave, and 1487–1523 for the porch. A song to the patron saint was sung at the dedication. Built in the Perpendicular style, with possible Norman origins, it consists of a chancel, nave and north and south aisles. Several monuments were removed by Rev. Granville Leveson-Gower in 1818 and some restoration occurred in 1884; it was re-seated and repaved in 1889. The building is of ashlar slate stone on a moulded plinth and wall plate, rag slate roofs with gable ends. The arcades each have seven four-centred arches of granite, supported by monolith granite pillars with sculpted capitals of St Stephens porcelain stone.
The tower of three stages is 85 feet in height, with a battlemented parapet and crocketted finials, the top stage is decorated with four carved figures, possibly the Four Evangelists. There is a piscina (used to cleanse sacred vessels after mass at the high altar) on the north side and the remains of rood loft stairs, now built up. In the south aisle is a second piscina and a priest's doorway. The font is one of Norman table-top type: it has a circular basin, hollowed in a square block decorated with blind arcade set on a round ornamented shaft.
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