Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Bolton-by-Bowland

This is a mid-15th-century church, with the nave and tower said to be completed in 1466 or 1467. The building incorporates some earlier remains and includes an early 16th-century Pudsay chapel. It was restored in 1885–86 when the nave roof was renewed to a design by Paley and Austin.

The church is constructed of sandstone rubble, with an ashlar tower and Pudsay chapel. The roofs are of stone slate and lead. The plan comprises a west tower, a nave and chancel under a continuous roof with clearstorey, north and south aisles, a south-east chapel, and a south porch.

The tower features diagonal buttresses with ornamented offsets and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles and gargoyles. The bell openings occur in two stages. The upper ones have Tudor-arched heads with hoods and stops. Each of the two cusped lights is separated by a splayed mullion that projects forward and continues upwards across the face of the parapet. Above each opening are decorative motifs including pierced quatrefoils. The lower bell openings are of two cusped lights with panel tracery above, under pointed heads with hoods having head stops. The west window is of four cusped lights with panel tracery, under a Tudor-arched head with hood and decorative stops. The door has a pointed Tudor arch with hood and head stops, with jambs of two hollow-chamfered orders.

The aisle and clearstorey windows are of two cusped lights with flat heads. The east window of the north aisle is mullioned with outer deep chamfer and inner hollow chamfer, with segmental heads to the lights, as is the adjoining window on the north side. The main east window has a Tudor-arched head and five pointed lights. The windows of the Pudsay chapel have flat heads with pointed heads to the lights, an inner hollow chamfer and outer casement moulding. The west window of the south aisle is a chamfered lancet and is probably re-used. The priest's doorway in the south aisle has a pointed head and sunk quadrant moulding and is probably 13th-century. The gabled porch has an inner door with flat head and jambs of re-used moulded stones. The inner lintel has unfinished dog-tooth decoration.

Interior

The interior has a five-bay arcade with octagonal piers and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. Between the chancel and Pudsay chapel is an additional moulded segmental arch. The tower arch is pointed and of two chamfered orders. In the south wall of the chancel is a chamfered window surround with segmental head, used as a squint. The adjoining piscina appears to have a surround of 19th-century date. In the north wall is a fragment of an arch with sunk quadrant moulding, probably a tomb recess.

The open timber roof of flat pitch is dated 1886. The studded south door is inscribed "1705". The altar rails are reconstructed but are dated "1704" on one turned newel. The screen under the tower arch, with raised panels and turned balusters, is of a similar period. The pews are reconstructed but are inscribed with initials and with "1694" in several places. The pulpit has re-set 17th-century panels in Flemish baroque style.

Under the arch between the Pudsay chapel and the chancel is a remarkable memorial to Sir Ralph Pudsay (died 1468). It is a limestone slab carved with figures of Sir Ralph, his three wives, and 25 children, together with their names, on an inscribed sandstone base renewed in 1857. In the chancel is a memorial tablet in the Greek style to Josias and Richard Dawson (died 1806 and 1807), by John Foster of Liverpool.

The octagonal sandstone font, whose inscriptions date it after 1507, is carved with coats of arms of families associated with the Pudsays and has Latin inscriptions inlaid in brass.