The church has the appearance of being very old, but the exterior does
not possess any beauty, and the whole is disfigured by an irregular
truncated pyramid adjoined to the western end as a tower. Within, the
church is neat although it is unusually small, but containing a series
of splendid monuments, ancient and modern.
Mr. Carew says, “The next parish on this river (the Liner) is
Sheviock, some time the ancient Daunyes’ inheritance, by whose
daughter and heir the same (together with other fair possessions)
descended to the Earls of Devon. In the church there lie two knights
of that name, and one of their ladies by her husband’s side, having
their pictures embossed on their tombs in the side walls, and their
arms once painted round about; but now, by the malice, not of men, but
of time, defaced. They are held to be father and son; and that the son
was slain in our wars with France, and was from thence brought home to
be here interred;” but Mr. Lysons conjectures that one of those
monuments is to a Courtenay.
“There runneth also a tale amongst the parishioners, how one of the
Daunyes’ ancestors undertook to build the church, and his wife the
barn adjoining; and that, casting up their accounts upon finishing of
their works, the barn was found to have cost three halfpence more than
the church: and so it might well fall out, for it is a great barn, and
a little church.” The advowson belongs to Mr. Carew’s descendant, the
Rt. Hon. R. P. Carew, of Anthony.
The barn, or what remains of it, almost adjoining to the church, adds
to the very singular appearance of the whole group. Scarcely any
remains of the mansion house, the residence for several ages of a
family so distinguished as the Dauneys, can now be discovered.
The principal village in this parish is Crofthole, situated on what
was till very lately the turnpike road from Tor Point to Leskeard, and
just at the point where the road branches off to Looe and Fowey.
This village stands nearly on the brow of a lofty cliff, down which
the road to Looe descends by repeated turnings. Mr. Lysons says the
ancient name was Croftilborowe, and that it possessed a weekly market
on Wednesdays, granted to Nicholas Dauney, then Lord of Sheviock, with
a Fair for three days at the Festival of St. James. The market has
long been discontinued. The village is at this time far from large, or
from presenting any appearance of opulence. Mr. Carew says it then
contained but twelve dwellings, and adds one of those coarse tales,
which are usually applied as jokes against any small place, endowed
with privileges or immunities above what its importance would seem to
justify.
On the edge of the sea, nearly under Croftshole, is a small pier
protecting a narrow beach of sand between rocks, called Porth Wrinkle:
it gives shelter to fishing boats and small vessels. The ancient pier,
which had stood during a great number of years, was destroyed by the
violent storm of Feb. 2, 1822. It is however replaced.
Trethil belonged for some time to the family of Wallis.