Church Of Saint Peter And Saint Paul

This substantial parish church demonstrates continuous development from the 11th through to the 19th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1848, and the church underwent restoration by the architect William Butterfield in 1862. The roofs were painted in 1894, and a rood beam was erected in 1929. The building is constructed of ironstone and limestone coursed rubble with ironstone and limestone dressings, and is roofed in slate. It comprises a west tower, north and south aisles, north porch, chancel, and vestry.

The West Tower

The west tower is built of ironstone with limestone buttresses and rises in five stages of irregular construction. The lowest stage reveals two main building phases. The earlier phase is represented by two wide arches visible in the west and south walls, composed of long narrow voussoirs and now blocked. The western arch is cut by the 12th-century west door, which is centred on the axis of the present tower, though the earlier arch is offset to the south. The 12th-century west door features chamfered imposts and a round head decorated with chevron beneath a chamfered hoodmould. The doorway is flanked by two narrow stepped buttresses, probably of 14th-century date. The south buttress incorporates a piece of 13th-century recumbent slab bearing a cross fleury.

Above the west door is a 19th-century lancet window. In the fourth stage is a 13th-century two-light opening, the lights having cusped ogee heads with a quatrefoil in the tympanum, set within a double-chamfered pointed opening with a chamfered hoodmould and grotesque label stops. Above this is a hollow-moulded string course from which project three water chutes: two grotesques at the angles and one carved as a knight. The battlemented parapet has pinnacles at the angles, and these top-stage details are repeated on all four sides of the tower.

The north wall of the tower has four external stages. A blocked doorway, probably 13th century with a pointed head, can be seen at the base, though its details are now obscure. Above is a small, weathered 13th-century light, originally pointed-headed. In the angle between the north aisle and the north side of the tower, face-alternate quoins can be seen which originally formed the north-west angle of the nave.

North Aisle and Porch

The north aisle is built of ironstone. At the west end is a 19th-century three-light window in a curious late Gothic style. To the east is the contemporary porch, featuring Gothic quatrefoils and Tudor-style rectangular windows in the side walls, and an outer arch in 13th-century style without capitals but with stop chamfers. The stone-coped gable rises to a cross fleury. The inner doorway is a recut 13th-century arch with single-chamfered reveals and a chamfered hoodmould.

East of the porch are three further four-centred 19th-century three-light windows, each with elaborate cusped tracery. In the east wall is a more regular three-light window with developed Y-tracery, a pointed arch, and a hoodmould. The north clerestory has four windows of three lights each beneath angular four-centred hoodmoulds with human head and beast label stops. The lights have trilobed cusped heads and chamfered mullions. Above is a battlemented parapet above a hollow-moulded string course with occasional grotesques.

Chancel and South Chapel

The north and south walls of the 1848 chancel have cusped trefoil-headed lancets. The east wall has three similar lancets plus a cusped trefoil light above. The east wall of the south chapel shows evidence of a blocked doorway about two-thirds along from the north end. Four stones of the extended footings project further than the rest, and three stones of the reveals are visible on either side of the doorway. There is a set-back stepped buttress on the east wall, a plain plinth stepped to the south, and in the south wall a two-light 19th-century window. The south gable of the chapel is coped with kneelers, with a further buttress at the south-west angle. In the west wall, the outline of a blocked 13th-century lancet can be seen above the oil tank.

South Aisle

The south aisle has a fine though weathered 13th-century doorway in a slightly advanced entry bay with a sloping solid roof. The doorway has five clustered keeled shafts in the reveals which continue over the arch as ribs, the two elements separated by annular capitals with matching narrow abaci. The arch ribs are surmounted by orders of dogtooth decoration, though this only continues in the outer pair of lower orders. The doorway is flanked by slender late 15th-century three-light windows with cusped ogee heads and pierced spandrels beneath a flat moulded hood terminating in plain horizontal label stops. Eastwards is a third, similar four-light window. The clerestory matches that to the north.

The west wall of the north aisle displays the same large face-alternate presumably Saxon quoins as on the south. In addition, a prominent straight joint further south attests the probable former existence of a much narrower aisle. The north wall of the tower (in four stages, of ironstone with some 19th-century patching) shows the second of the early arches at the base, composed like the western one of long narrow voussoirs. This arch is cut by the stepped south-western tower buttress, which contains part of a 13th-century coped tomb slab bearing a cross. Immediately east of the early arch is a stepped 13th-century buttress, so dated because it avoids a small lancet window to the west. The lancet could have been positioned earlier, but it seems more likely it was sited to accommodate the buttress position. Above the buttress in the second stage is a sandstone sundial dated 1835, with above it a large clock of 1853, balancing that to the north.

Interior

Inside, the 13th-century north and south arcades each have four bays. The ammonite-form label stops of the north aisle arches are paralleled in work by Bishop Grosseteste at Lincoln (1235–53). The shafts stand on large square bases, recut in the 19th century. The shafts have octagonal water-retaining bases, octagonal shafts with moulded nailhead capitals, hollow abaci, and double-chamfered arches with hollow-moulded hoodmoulds terminating in human heads on the south side and ammonites on the north.

The Romanesque tower arch is plastered, so all its details are obscured apart from the plain imposts which are chamfered on the undersides. Inside, the tower has three openings on the ground floor to the west, north, and south. The south doorway is round-headed, and since the voussoirs do not match the reveals, it appears to be repositioned; it is not visible outside but could be a worn keyhole window.

The chancel arch is 13th century, with engaged octagonal responds and single chamfers. The capitals have simple leaf forms in the necking, evidently early 13th century to match the water-retaining bases. A double-chamfered arch rises above. There is a contemporary double-chamfered arch on the south side resting on single engaged annular corbels. On the north side a similar corbel exists, as does the springing for an arch on the south side, but the arch it supported has gone, probably when the rood loft was contrived in the 14th century, the shape of which can be seen in the plaster above. All this appears to be evidence of former transepts.

On the east side of the crossing, in the angles, are the engaged shafts of a late Norman crossing with a further scallop beyond on either side. These shafts are consistent with a large and impressive 12th-century building, probably with a cruciform plan. The chancel was largely rebuilt in 1848, and all the fittings and glass are of that date.

Monuments

In the vestry on the east wall is a black slate wall plaque to Sir Edward Maddison, died 1553. The deceased is shown kneeling in full armour, regarding a book on an altar, his plumed helm before him. On the west wall is a collection of seven wall plaques, including one to William Fields, died 1732, which features two urns and a shell in a provincial style. Above is a second monument to a member of the Maddison family, Katherine, died 1619.

An effigy of Sir William de Hundon, late 13th century, shows a knight in mail and surcoat with shield and dog at his feet, set in a contemporary arched tomb recess in the north wall of the Hundon Choir. An effigy further east may be that of his wife, also late 13th century, with feet on a dog, flowing gown, and draped head. Further east still is the magnificent though damaged effigy to Sir John de Hundon, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, who died late in the 14th century. He is shown in full plate armour with a mailed gorget and basinet helm; all straps to the helm, cingulum, and spurs are decorated with roses. The tomb recess matches the quality of the effigy, having deep cusping with sunk spandrels.

There is a brass to John Ousterby, died 1461, and his wife in the chancel floor. A fragment of a 12th-century wheel-head stone grave marker lies to the south of the lectern. On the north wall of the Hundon Choir hangs the famous Caistor Gad Whip.