Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul

Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul

Church. The building dates from the mid-14th century but incorporates 12th and 13th-century remains, along with fragments of sculpture from around 1300. Perpendicular additions and alterations were made, and the church underwent restoration in 1868. It is constructed of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features an ashlar spire. The roofs are of lead behind embattled parapets, with the porch roof made of interlocking sandstone slabs. The church comprises a west tower with an octagonal broached spire, a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a south porch, a lower chancel, and a north vestry.

The tower is three stages with weathered set-backs and angle buttresses. The bell openings are each of two pointed lights under a pointed head. Two tiers of lucarnes run up the tower. The west window contains three Tudor-arched lights in a moulded rectangular opening. On the south side, the middle stage has a one-light chamfered window below a clock face, and beneath that is a window formed by a cross within a circle.

The north aisle has mullioned windows with rounded heads to the lights—two lights facing west and three and two lights facing north. Towards the right-hand end of the north wall is a blocked chamfered round-arched doorway. The clerestory has three windows, each of two cinquefoiled lights; the south clerestory is similar. The west window of the south aisle is a narrow chamfered lancet. To the right of the porch are two moulded mullioned windows, each of three cinquefoiled lights. Above the left-hand window is a re-set worn carved figure, and to the left of the right-hand window is a carved 'Green Man' figure.

The porch has a double-chamfered arch with moulded capitals to the responds; the outer order of the arch and the crocketed hood mould have an ogee shape. The roof consists of solid stone slabs, partly supported by a chamfered pointed internal arch. The inner doorway is Norman and probably re-set with a slight point to the round arch. The inner order is chamfered and the outer one square, carried on angle shafts. Above the doorway is a stone tablet carved with a figure. The east window of the south aisle is of three mullioned lights under a flat head. Above it is a tablet (the upper part damaged) carved with a seated figure of Christ, with a figure of the Virgin and Child to the left. The south wall of the chancel has two three-light mullioned windows with flat heads. Between them is a chamfered doorway with triangular head, and above is the carved head of a 'Green Man'. The east window of the chancel is pointed and has 19th-century cusped tracery. The north wall of the chancel is blank. In the angle with the north aisle is a vestry and boiler house.

Interior

The internal walls are of exposed rubble with ashlar dressings. The tower arch is pointed with two square outer orders and one inner chamfered order; the responds are keel-moulded with moulded capitals. Two tower buttresses project into the nave. The nave arcades are of three bays and have pointed arches chamfered in two orders springing from alternate round and quatrefoil piers. Chamfered relieving arches over the two eastern bays were inserted in 1821 when the eastern piers were removed; these were reinstated during the 1868 restoration. Above the chancel arch is a chamfered basket arch, with a pointed and three-order chamfered chancel arch below springing from shafts with moulded capitals. The nave roof is boarded and has pine king-post trusses. The north wall of the north aisle contains a trefoiled piscina with a broken bowl. An organ is set within a 19th-century pointed archway in the north wall of the chancel. The chancel roof is boarded and has three collar-beam trusses. To each side of the tower arch are re-set canopied figures of St Peter and St Paul, formerly in the south wall of the south aisle.

Attached to the wall to the left of the arch is a grave slab to Matilda le Caus (died 1224) with a Lombardic inscription and with a carved head, shoulders, and hands holding a heart visible through a quatrefoil. A memorial attached to the north wall of the north aisle was erected in 1673 in memory of the Clarke family and has a crudely carved figure holding curtains away from the inscription. A memorial to Geoffrey Clarke (died 1734) at the east end of the north aisle is of marble and carved with sarcophagus, urn, Corinthian pilasters, and a broken segmental pediment, inscribed 'Sam Huskisson Fecit'.

The octagonal sandstone font appears to be late 19th-century and has tracery decoration. Late 19th-century glass includes an east window showing the Ascension of Christ and two windows in the south wall of the chancel showing scenes from the life of Christ.