Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Parish church built between 1779 and 1781, located in Stallingborough. The building is constructed of orange-brown brick laid in Flemish bond on the tower and south and west sides of the nave and chancel, with English bond applied to the north and east sides. Limestone ashlar provides the dressings, with sections of ironstone ashlar to the plinth on the north and east sides of the nave and chancel. Welsh slate covers the roofs.

The church comprises a west tower with west entrance and a four-bay nave and chancel. A tall ashlar plinth with cyma recta moulding runs across the base, finished with brick quoins. The three-stage tower is marked by two-course brick bands between each stage. The west entrance features a round-headed doorway with plastered surround and keyed archivolt, set with double board doors hung on ornate wrought-iron strap hinges. The second stage contains circular openings in raised ashlar surrounds: the west opening holds a boarded window, while the north and south sides have recessed panels. Round-headed belfry windows with pilastered surrounds, bracketed sills, keyed archivolts and wooden louvres light the upper stage. The tower quoins form rusticated angle pilasters carrying a plain brick frieze topped by an ashlar eaves cornice. A pyramidal roof crowns the tower, retaining its original finial and weather-vane.

The nave and chancel display round-headed windows to the south and east, contained within twentieth-century quoined ashlar surrounds with moulded imposts and keyed archivolts, brick aprons and twentieth-century diamond-pane leaded windows set in hollow-chamfered reveals. The north side has similar blind openings but retains original brick surrounds with ashlar sills, imposts and keystones. A stepped and dentilled brick eaves cornice runs around, surmounted by a moulded ashlar cornice and blocking course. The west end of the nave shows a two-course brick band continued from the first stage of the tower.

Interior: A round-headed doorway connects the tower to the nave, which opens directly into the chancel. The space is spanned by an eight-bay ceiled roof with modillioned cornice and exposed chamfered beams. Inserted nineteenth-century posts and moulded brackets form a chancel "arch". The original flagstone floor with black marble insets extends through the nave, while the chancel was fitted with a nineteenth-century polychrome tiled floor. An oak chancel screen in Classical style stands with Ionic pilasters and dentilled pediment, with a door to the vestry featuring an eared architrave and entablature.

The church contains several monuments of note. A brass to Sir William Ascough (died 1541) and his wife shows figures of a Knight and Lady approximately 0.45 metres high, dressed in costumes emblazoned with heraldic devices with inscribed scrolls issuing from their mouths, an inscribed plate below, and a small indent for a missing brass above. An alabaster and ashlar chest tomb commemorates Sir Edward Ayscough (died 1612) and his wife Esther: the effigy shows a Knight in armour lying on a rolled mat with his head on a tasselled cushion, his coat of arms at the head and helmet at the feet, beside the effigy of a Lady lying on her side propped on her elbow. The chest features angle pilasters carved with trophies, an inscribed black marble frieze, and miniature figures of five male and six female children kneeling alongside. An early seventeenth-century alabaster and marble wall monument to Sir Edward Ayscough, erected by his son Sir Francis, displays an inscribed tablet in a pilastered surround with strapwork supports and inscribed frieze and cornice, surmounted by a bust with both arms, the head resting on one hand and the other holding a baton (missing at time of resurvey), set within a round-arched niche with rosette ornament to the soffit and a relief panel to the rear showing trophies. An inscribed frieze and moulded cornice below support an oval relief tablet bearing arms and crest. An octagonal font with plain moulded bowl and base on a square pedestal was reset in 1872.

The church underwent substantial alterations: interior restorations in 1874 included removal of the gallery, reseating, and creation of a quasi-chancel; the roof was repaired and reslated in 1884; ashlar window surrounds and glazing were added in 1908; the chancel was restored in 1911; a chancel screen was installed in 1922; and a vestry was built in 1926. A stained glass east window dates to 1897.

Historical records and drawings by C Nattes from 1796 (held in the Banks Collection, Lincoln City Library) show oculi to the tower. The plinth probably incorporates ashlar from a previous church which collapsed in 1746.