St Nicholas’ Church, West Looe is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church in

Looe Looe (; , ) is a coastal town and civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, with a population of 5,280 at the 2011 census. Looe is west of Plymouth and south of Liskeard, divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe () a ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

History

The church, dedicated to St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra was built either in the 13th or 14th century by the D’Aubigny family, who then held the Manors of Looe. It was endowed on 11 July 1336 by parishioners of

Talland Talland (, ) is a hamlet and ecclesiastical parish and former civil parish, between Looe and Polperro, now in the parish of Polperro, in the Cornwall district, on the south coast of Cornwall, England (the parish includes the eastern part of the ...

, and by Sir John Dawnay. The endowment was confirmed by Bishop

John Grandisson The '' British Museum">John Grandisson Triptych'', displaying on two small escutcheons the arms of Bishop Grandisson. British Museum John de Grandisson (1292 – 16 July 1369), also spelt Grandison, was Bishop of Exeter, in Devon, England, f ...

of Exeter. During the time of the

Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth of England was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when Kingdom of England, England and Wales, later along with Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, were governed as a republi ...

, the Chapel became the Guildhall for West Looe, but was restored for public worship on the accession of King Charles II. This was short-lived, and later it reverted to be the Guildhall and prison until 1852. It was restored for public worship through the efforts of the vicar, Mr. Seymour and John Francis Buller of Morval, with work done by local country tradesmen under the supervision of Captain C. Cocks, when an aisle was added and it re-opened for public worship on All Saints’ Day, 1852. The chancel was lengthened, using timber from the ''St Josef'', a ship captured by Admiral Nelson at the

Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797) The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was a fleet action fought on 14 February 1797 between the British and Spanish navies off Cape St. Vincent as part of the War of the First Coalition. In one of the opening battles of the recently declared war be ...

Parish status

The church is in a joint parish with *St Wenna’s Church, Morval * St Martin’s Church, St Martin-by-Looe

References

{{commons West Looe West Looe Looe