Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

Parish church dating from the 12th century with significant extensions and modifications in the 14th and 15th centuries, and restored in 1896. The church is built of squared limestone rubble and ashlar with lead roofs.

The exterior consists of a clerestoried nave with aisles, south porch, transepts, chancel, south chapel, and a crossing tower with spire. The nave is battlemented with crocketed pinnacles, a latticed frieze, and cross pattees. The west doorway has a continuously moulded hollow chamfered surround with leaf decoration. Above it is a large five-light 15th-century window with cusped heads to the lights and panel tracery with brattished transom.

In the west end of the south aisle is an early 15th-century three-light window with ogee heads to the lights and panel tracery. The north aisle contains a 15th-century three-light window with four-centred arched head. The north aisle has a plain moulded parapet with stepped and gabled buttresses. A 15th-century double chamfered doorway is positioned above which is a three-light window with cusped heads to the lights and rounded head. Three three-light 14th-century windows have curvilinear tracery with mouchettes. The clerestory to both north and south has eight two-light windows with triangular heads and cusping to the Y tracery.

The 14th-century crossing tower is embattled with parapet angle pinnacles and a set-back crocketed spire featuring three tiers of alternating lucarnes. In the belfry stage are paired lights with reticulated tracery and continuously moulded surrounds. The north transept has a large mullioned and transomed five-light window with Perpendicular tracery and brattishing to the transoms. In its east wall are two three-light 15th-century Perpendicular traceried windows.

The chancel contains two pointed two-light windows, one 14th-century with reticulated tracery and the other with reset tracery. There is also a small round-headed doorway. The east window is a 19th-century three-light window with Geometric tracery. A 17th-century four-light chamfered mullioned window in a square surround is located in the south chapel's east wall. On the south side is a doorway with 19th-century surround and two reticulated windows in square surrounds, one of three lights and one of two. A 14th-century tomb recess with triangular moulded head is also present.

The south transept contains a three-light early 15th-century panel traceried window and to the south a large window matching the north transept. The south aisle has three 15th-century three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and a pair of semi-circular moulded tomb recesses.

The 14th-century gabled south porch has angle buttresses and a plain parapet with pinnacles. The hollow chamfered pointed outer doorway is decorated with fleurons and human head stops to the crocketed hood, and is flanked and surmounted by single nodding ogee-headed niches with vaults. Two-light mullioned and transomed side windows have cusped heads. The inner door matches the outer but features an ogee finial and is flanked by single niches with floriated canopies.

Interior

The early 15th-century nave has four bays with double-moulded pointed arches. The outer order is continuous whilst the inner order has half-round columns with brattished capitals. Hood moulds feature shield and animal stops. A roll-moulded cill band to the clerestory is supported by grotesque corbels that alternately support shafts to roof corbels. The roof is 19th-century work in 15th-century form with brattished ties and traceried spandrels. The aisle roofs are matching. Four 15th-century double-chamfered tower arches have octagonal responds and capitals. A double-chamfered arch connects the north aisle to the transept. A wider double-chamfered arch with octagonal reveals connects the south aisle to the transept.

The crossing is lierne vaulted with moulded ribs, bosses and a circular bell hole filled with vaulting ribs. A matching double-chamfered arch connects the south transept to the south chapel. The chancel has a pointed doorway in its north wall and a two-bay 13th-century arcade to the south chapel, featuring double-chamfered arches, quatrefoil filleted piers and annular capitals. An ogee-headed piscina is located on the south wall. In the south wall of the chapel are 14th-century sedilia and piscina with cusped ogee-headed seats and moulded cornice. The south transept contains a pointed piscina.

Fittings and Monuments

The south chapel has a 15th-century screen of five lights with central opening, featuring crocketed and cusped ogee arches and panel tracery, with 19th-century brattishing and rood figures. A 14th-century octagonal font with cusped panels stands on a 19th-century stem.

The south transept displays a pair of recumbent effigies on a chest depicting a knight and lady. The knight lies in a cusped ogee-headed niche with crocketed pinnacles and censing angels in the spandrels, while the lady lies on the floor beside him with mantle and cushion. A wall monument to John Calthrop, died 1785, is located in the nave's east wall, featuring a marble surround with pedimented urn.