St Paul's Church, Truro

St Paul’s Church stands in Truro, Cornwall, as a Grade II listed former parish church of the Church of England. Built in 1845 at a cost of £2,840, it opened for worship later that year. The congregation struggled with debt for two decades before the church was consecrated in 1864 by the Bishop of Exeter. By 1880 the building proved too small, so the architect John Dando Sedding enlarged it with a new chancel and aisles. The tower was completed in 1910 by Edmund Harold Sedding, Edmund’s nephew. The church is recognised for its fine stained glass by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. Its organ, built by Hele and Co, once filled the building with music. After a quinquennial survey in 2007 revealed serious structural problems, the congregation moved elsewhere. A repair estimate of £1,000,000 led the Church of England to decide the church could not be saved. Inside, visitors once found an elegant nave with aisles and a spacious chancel added in the 1880s. The tower rises above the west end, completed in 1910. Today the building stands empty, awaiting demolition after a public hearing in 2025. Its stained glass and organ survive only in records, while the shell remains a quiet witness to Truro’s past.