[8] Annie Walke, the vicar's wife, and some of the couple's artist friends from the "Lamorna Group" of the Newlyn School were commissioned to decorate the church with altarpieces, panels and other works.

Annie, Dod and Ernest Procter, Gladys Hynes, Alethea and Norman Garstin and Harold Knight all made paintings for the sides of the stalls in the church.

[10] The parish became notorious in the 1930s after extreme Protestant agitators broke into the church on 8 August 1932, and removed or destroyed many of the fittings and furnishings that had been installed by the much-loved Father Bernard Walke (vicar of St. Hilary from 1912 to 1936).

The church houses the St Hilary Heritage Centre beneath the school room, with displays about local history dating back to the Roman era.

[12] Exhibits include mining, emigration, Newlyn School paintings, Cornish language and the history of the church.

The Procters, Harveys, Knights, Garstins and Walkes were all involved in the unique scheme of decoration of the church which has led to its Grade I listing.