St Luke

A church of 1845 by George Wightwick, described by Pevsner (2014) as ‘a very competant Gothic essay with good Perp style window tracery’. It houses one ancient feature – a Norman font of the Altarnun type with faces at the four corners and large rosettes in circles.

Left side of Sanctuary showing panelling by Violet Pinwill on north wall, paintings by an unknown artist and part of the reredos carved by Lilian O’Dogherty

Panelling – Newspaper article (Cornish Guardian, 1951); 1951

The only source for this piece is a newspaper report of the patronal festival during which carved oak memorial panelling on the north and south walls of the Sanctuary was dedicated in memory of Kenelm O’Dogherty, who had died in 1950. The panelling was given to the church by Constance, his wife, of Lanthorne, Tideford, and records that he was a constant member of Tideford Church, giving his services in the choir for over 51 years, and being people’s warden for 12 years. The memorial consists of ten carved and ten plain panels. The carving was ‘designed by Miss V. Pinwill, of Plymouth’ and includes ‘Latin phrases, birds and nests, fish, seaweed and wild plants’, with the O’Dogherty coat of arms, crest and motto, and extracts from Psalm 104.

This work added to existing panelling and a reredos on the east wall of the Sanctuary and it transpires that Violet Pinwill and the O’Dogherty family had a hand in this too, quite some time before. In 1907 an oak reredos was installed carved by ‘Miss L. O’Dogherty [Lilian, sister of Kenelm], under the direction of Miss Pinwill’ (Warner, 2022). This is the only occasion known to the author when such an arrangement occurred. It is possible that Miss O’Dogherty was a pupil of Violet Pinwill at one of the classes she ran. One mystery remains and that is who was responsible for the paintings of saints, four on each side of the reredos. It may have been Lilian or someone else, but it is unlikely to be associated with the Pinwill company.

Sources

Beacham, P. & Pevsner, N. (2014) The Buildings of England. Cornwall. Yale University Press, London.

Cornish Guardian (1951) Tideford Church Memorial. Panelling in memory of warden and choir man. 25 October p. 2.

Warner, M. (2022) A Time to Build: Signposts to the Building, Restoration, Enhancement, and Maintenance of Cornwall’s Anglican Churches and Mission Rooms. Scryfa, Cornwall.