St Ladoca's Church, Ladock

St Ladoca’s Church stands in the quiet village of Ladock in Cornwall, built mainly of granite with a tall west tower. The north wall belongs to the 13th century, while the south aisle dates from the 15th. In the 19th century George Edmund Street led a thorough restoration, rebuilding most walls and re-roofing part of the church. The work included new windows of Ham Hill stone, stained-deal seating with carved ends, and a low oak screen between nave and chancel. The same campaign brought stained glass by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., the first professional collaboration of William Morris after his pupil days with Street. The church is best known for its fine series of Morris & Co. windows. The east window of 1863 shows the Marys of the New Testament, with Mary the sister of Lazarus at the centre. Later windows of 1869–70 and 1897 were designed by Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. The floors combine Portland stone squares with black and red tiles in the aisles and encaustic tiles in the chancel. The reredos uses dark encaustic tiles with carved alabaster and a polished serpentine super-altar. The carved base of the rood screen and the Catacleuse stone font are also notable features. The tower contains a ring of eight bells, six installed in 1883 and two added in 1925. In 2025 the bells were removed, four recast and the frames replaced to lower the belfry floor by five feet. The church shares its parish with four neighbouring churches across the countryside. The annual feast day falls on the Sunday after the first Thursday in January, when the village gathers to mark the tradition.