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Parish Church of:
Austell, St
The church of the Holy Trinity, standing in the centre of the town, is a
structure of Pentewan stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles,
consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch with parvise, and
an embattled tower 96 feet high, with pinnacles and richly ornamented with
niches, containing statues of the Deity, the Saviour, Angels, Bishops, the
Virgin Mary, and various saints, and containing a clock with 3 dials and
Westminster chimes, placed in the tower in 1885 at a cost of £200, and 8 fine
toned bells, all cast in 1810; on the buttresses of the south side are
sculptured the instruments of the Passion: the chancel, which inclines towards
the south is Early Decorated and has a reredos of alabaster and mosaic, erected
in 1872: the font is Norman and has shafts at the angles: there are memorial
windows to the Rev. Fortescue Todd, LLB. vicar 1838-81, the Right Rev J.W.
Colenso D.D., Bishop of Natal, d. 20 June 1883, Mrs Graves-Sawle, Edward Coode
esq. Thomas Drew, and others: the church has been restored, including a new open
timber roof over the chancel, and the re-seating of the whole interior with open
benches, at a total cost of £2,300; a new organ was erected in 1880, at a cost
of £800; and a sculptured pulpit in 1881, at a cost of £130:, and in 1889 a
vestry was built on the north to the memory of Mrs. Edmund Carlyon, at a cost of
£350: there are 700 sittings. The churchyard has been levelled on the north and
east and enclosed with handsome railings, at a cost of £180: in the churchyard,
in which it was removed in 1893 for preservation, is a large flat stone called
the "Menagew" or "Mengu" stone, previously standing near the western entrance to
the church; it was said to show the meeting point of three manors, as well as to
define other boundaries, and is the object of some local superstitions. The
register dates from the year 1505.
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