Church Of Saint Peter And Saint Paul

Church of Saints Peter and Paul

A large medieval parish church substantially restored by J. L. Pearson in 1851–3.

Exterior

The tall west tower is early 14th-century, built of irregularly coursed ashlar. It is divided into three stages, each with flat gabled buttresses, and features paired lights to the bell chamber on the west side. The tower is parapetted with large octagonal corner pinnacles and gargoyles below the parapet. It is surmounted by an octagonal lantern and a short spire, which was rebuilt in the 1840s after being struck by lightning in 1841.

The nave comprises four bays of coursed squared rubble, with a parapetted clerestory and fine traceried windows by Pearson. There are small transepts. The chancel is in High Victorian 'Cottage' style by Pearson, with overhanging eaves, a coped east gable, and a stone-tiled steeply pitched roof with frieze to eaves cornice and ridge cresting. It contains fine traceried lights with slender shafts and hoodmoulds. The east wall of the chancel features two niches, one on either side of the east window, representing Pearson's restoration of an earlier feature.

The south porch is also in Cottage style, with buttresses continuing along each wall face, overhanging eaves to a steeply pitched roof, and a coped gable bearing a cross. The junction of porch and main wall is marked by a hoodmould terminating in small dragons. Inside the porch is a sturdy cusped timbered roof. The north vestry is another example of Cottage style with an ornate expressed chimney. West ends of the aisles have decorated Y-tracery windows, the north one blocked. The north doorway features a trouble-chamfered arch set in a triangular hoodmould with trefoils in the angle, with the hoodmould continuing the sill course. Coped gables bearing crosses are found on the end of the transepts and the east end of the nave.

Interior

The restoration involved extensive but meticulous reinstatement of existing work, though the main structure is substantially medieval and possibly rebuilt. The north arcade is the earliest, dating to the late 13th century. It features cylindrical shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, grotesque masks in the easternmost section, and two plain banded capitals with nail-head decoration. Foliate corbels support the arcading. The south arcade has slightly later clustered columns but is otherwise similar.

Windows have been restored by Pearson, except for the west window of the south aisle. The chancel arch dates to the late 13th century and features cylindrical shafts with stiff-leaf capitals. The chancel contains a simple sedile in the south wall and two stained-glass windows: the east window by A. Gibbs commemorates Charles, Earl of Gainsborough, erected by his tenants in 1866; the south window by Clayton and Bell is a memorial to the daughter of Sir G. Noel, who died in 1816. The altar rails appear to be by Pearson.

All interior roofs in the nave, aisles, and chancel are Pearson's work, featuring strong cusped timbering in complex structures. Restored corbels appear throughout, with a particularly fine series of angles in the chancel.

Monuments

Exton Church is particularly remarkable for its monuments. The earliest is a late 14th-century table tomb of Nicholas Grene in the chancel: an incised cross on a marble slab on a base with ogee-arched niches. Also in the chancel is a wall monument by Nollekens to Baptist, 4th Earl, and Elizabeth his wife, who died in 1751 and 1771 respectively. It features a reclining female figure with a cornucopia on a sarcophagus backed by an obelisk with medallions and putti.

On the north wall of the chancel is a memorial to James Harrington and his wife Lucy, dated 1591. This is a large standing monument with two kneeling figures at a prie-dieu in a double aedicule, wrought in various marbles and enriched with low-relief carving and strapwork, surmounted by an obelisk and arms.

The south transept contains a memorial to Robert Kelway, his daughter, wife, and two children, dated 1580. This large standing wall monument is made of various marbles and is richly decorated with recumbent and kneeling figures of the whole family in an aedicule, capped by an obelisk and arms. It is grander than the Harrington monument and the two appear clearly stylistically linked. This memorial has been attributed by Pevsner to Nicholas Johnson and elsewhere (Rutland Magazine Vol. III) to Nicholas Stone.

In the north transept is the grandest 17th-century monument, commemorating the 3rd Viscount Campden, Baptist Noel, who died in 1683. This huge piece is constructed of black and white marble, with a tall base on which stand obelisks on balls capped by two black urns and a large open pediment. Within are the Viscount and his fourth wife in effigy, along with various low-reliefs depicting his previous wives and 19 children in Roman dress. The work was completed at least in part by Grinling Gibbons.

In the north aisle is a memorial to Anne, wife of Lord Bruce of Kinloss, who died in 1627. This is a very classical monument for its date, a black and white marble table tomb with a shrouded effigy. Nearby is another wall monument by Nollekens, dated 1787, for Lieutenant Lord General Bennett Noel.

The font is a late 14th-century octagonal piece with trefoiled niches on each face and carved heads in the spandrels.