Church Of St Peter And St Clare

Church of St Peter and St Clare

A medieval parish church of mixed dates, substantially rebuilt and restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. The church stands on the south side of Church Street in Fenny Compton.

The building comprises a chancel, aisled nave, north porch and west tower with spire, constructed in Decorated style. The chancel dates from the late 13th or early 14th century, though it was largely rebuilt in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The nave is also late 13th century in origin. The north aisle, west tower, spire, and porch were added in the late 14th century. A 16th-century clerestory was inserted, and the porch was partly remodelled in 1675. Major restoration and renewal of the south aisle tracery took place in 1879 under the architect T.G. Jackson.

The exterior is constructed of ironstone, with regular coursed ashlar used for the chancel, clerestory, north aisle and tower, while the south aisle is built of coursed rubble. Lead roofs feature moulded parapets and shallow-pitched gable parapets.

The chancel is three bays long with a plinth that double-steps to the east, flanked by south diagonal and north-east buttresses. Its east window contains three lights with reticulated tracery and a hood mould. The south side displays three two-light windows with cinqfoiled lights, and a blocked doorway is partly inserted into the north side. The north porch has low diagonal buttresses and a late 14th-century moulded arched doorway with hood mould and block stops, fitted with 17th-century double-leaf plank doors. A datestone appears in the gable. The late 14th-century north doorway shows two sunk-chamfered orders with hood mould and head stops, and retains an ancient studded three-plank door. Two north windows contain two trefoiled round-arched lights within square heads, with moulded jambs and hood moulds. A three-light east window has a segmental arch and trefoiled lights, and the two-light west window displays simple cusped reticulated tracery.

The south aisle has four buttresses. Its central doorway is of two chamfered orders with hood mould and foliage stops. Four south windows contain two lights with cusped Y-tracery, while the east and west windows follow the pattern of the north aisle. The three-bay clerestory holds two-light windows, with 16th-century examples to the north featuring four-centred lights and 19th-century ones to the south with trefoiled lights.

The west tower comprises two stages with a double-chamfered plinth. West diagonal buttresses rise to the parapet with four offsets, and a blocked west door is present. The late 14th-century west window contains two orders with cinqfoiled reticulated tracery and hood mould with head stops. Similar trefoiled bell openings feature return stops. Gargoyles project from the north and south sides. The tower is crowned with a recessed octagonal spire set with small lucarnes.

The interior features plastered walls. The chancel contains a 19th-century south recess with segmental-pointed arch and a 19th-century roof with one reset medieval head corbel. A late 14th-century chancel arch of two chamfered orders springs from half-octagon shafts with moulded capitals and bases, with hood mould and return stops.

The nave displays a five-bay 14th-century north arcade of two chamfered orders with octagonal pillars, moulded capitals and bases. The easternmost bay retains fragmentary foliage carving. A blocked square-headed doorway indicates a former roof loft. The south arcade, rebuilt in 1879, mirrors this design. The low-pitched roof is fitted with simply-moulded cambered tie beams and wall posts on stone corbels. The aisles contain chamfered cambered tie beams and chamfered ribs.

The church retains several historical fittings: 17th-century communion rails with twisted balusters, a font with a 19th-century bowl on an old cylindrical stem and square base, a pulpit constructed from five late 17th-century fielded panels, a plain locker with fielded panel door and H-hinges in the north aisle, and a 17th-century chest. The north aisle east window contains stained glass dating to circa 1883.

Monuments include a reset brass inscription to Richard Willis dated 1597, and a wall monument to Elizabeth Croker (died 1719) featuring a flaming urn.