A 14thc. tower survives from an earlier chapel, the building itself is the work of Sir Henry Trecarrell in 1511-24, entirely of granite, and externally highly ornate.
The font base is the only Romanesque feature.
St Mary Magdalene was first built between 1295 and 1319, by the burgesses of Launceston as a public chapelry to St Stephens Priory, and in 1338 it was elevated to parish church status, with the dedication of its high altar. Between 1511 and 1524 it was rebuilt by Henry Trecarrell, with the exception of the 14thc. tower.
At W end of N aisle. Post-Reformation apart from the base, which is bulbous with a flattened cable moulding incised around the upper zone; its plain lower zone is carved with three equidistant feline animal masks, with large almond-shaped eyes and upward-pointing ears (except the one facing W, which is earless); these slightly overlap the main zone. It is made of Ventergan stone.
|Circumference at bottom of font||1.89 m|
|Height of base||0.25 m|
P. Beacham and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Cornwall (New Haven and London 2014), pp.287-89.
C. Henderson, The Cornish Church Guide, (London 1925), pp. 113-5
A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, vol. III, (Truro and London 1870), p. 72.
N. Pevsner and E. Radcliffe, The Buildings of England: Cornwall, 2nd ed (Harmondsworth 1970), p. 96-7
E. H. Sedding, Norman Architecture in Cornwall: A Handbook to old Cornish ecclesiastical architecture with notes on ancient manor houses (London and Truro 1909), pp. 214-5, pl. 87.