Anglican Church Of Ss Peter And Paul

An Anglican parish church originating before 1086, though nothing visible survives from this date. The west tower dates from the 15th century, with its spire renewed in 1776-7 by John Cheshire (circa 1739-1812). The remainder of the church was built between 1879 and 1890, with the south porch added in 1908, all designed by Julius Alfred Chatwin (1830-1907). The church is constructed from brownish-grey sandstone under slate roofs.

Plan and Setting

The plan comprises a nave, apsidal chancel, north and south aisles, north organ chamber, south chancel chapel, and south porches. A late-20th-century church centre extends northwards and westwards from the north side of the church (not of special interest).

Exterior

The building is set on a moulded sandstone plinth with angle buttresses and pitched roofs. The west tower has four stages with angle buttresses and three-light windows. The bell stage features an unusual treatment with rows of segment-headed recesses containing two tiers of trefoil-headed panels; the central pair are louvred while those flanking are blind. Moulded string courses mark the stages. The tower is surmounted by an elegant, broachless octagonal spire. The tower, nave and chancel have unifying crenellations.

The aisle windows and those to the south (Erdington) chapel have simple Y-tracery with drip moulds and some head stops, designed in part to accommodate stained glass from the earlier church. The clerestory has three-light windows with cusped heads and trefoils in Decorated tracery above. The nave and chancel are continuous, with the transition between them marked by large pinnacles with gargoyles at their bases.

The high, five-sided chancel has tall buttresses with multiple off-sets and three-light windows with continuous mullions. Those to the sides have similar tracery to the clerestory windows. The nave, chancel and chapel feature gargoyles and moulded detailing.

Interior

The interior is long and high, dominated by the apsidal east end. There is no chancel arch. The nave and chancel have a continuous hammer-beam roof adapted to the apsidal chancel. There is parquet flooring to the nave and aisles, and mosaic floors in geometric designs to the chancel and Erdington chapel.

The west entrance under the tower gives access to the body of the church. The high 15th-century tower arch has four continuous chamfers. Immediately in front of it stands the font with its elaborate cover, designed by Chatwin and installed in 1881.

The seven-bay nave arcades are formed from pointed arches carried on alternating round and octagonal piers with shallow capitals featuring foliate carving. Although there is no structural break between the nave and chancel, the decoration becomes more sumptuous at the east end. The hammer-beam roof has a wealth of carved timber angels and punched decoration to the trusses.

The elaborate two-bay chancel arcades have ogival arches with rich embellishments including crocketing, cusping, angel figures and pinnacles. The apse has five fine stained glass windows by Hardman and Co, dating from 1885, depicting the Adoration of the Lamb. Below, the sanctuary is clad in marble with rich carved and pierced decoration incorporating canopied sedilia. The reredos has three similar marble canopies over a stone relief triptych.

The furnishings were all designed by Chatwin, including the pulpit situated at the eastern end of the nave. Installed in 1885, it is of alabaster and marble with biblical scenes in relief, and is integral with the truncated remains of the chancel screen.

The Erdington chapel has a timber barrel-vaulted roof, mosaic floor and houses monuments to the Erdington family. In addition to the Hardman windows at the east end, there is further stained glass of the mid- and late-19th century to the north and south aisles, Erdington chapel, and tower. Makers include Hardman and Co, Lavers and Barraud, Alexander Gibbs, and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. An 18th-century window by Francis Eginton is resited above the north door, which now leads to the attached church centre.

Monuments

The church has an important collection of effigies and mural monuments dating from the medieval period to the 19th century. In general, those commemorating the Holte family of Aston Hall are situated in the north aisle, and those to the Erdingtons in the Erdington Chapel. Further mural monuments are sited in the north and south aisles, the Erdington Chapel, and under the tower.

The monuments include an alabaster knight of circa 1360 and a sandstone lady of circa 1490 lying together on a tomb chest, said to be a 16th-century amalgamation of two original tomb chests, possibly commemorating Ralph Arden and Elizabeth, wife of Robert Arden, and probably moved here from Maxstoke, his home.

Sir Thomas Erdington (died 1433) and wife Joan or Anne Harcourt (died 1417) are commemorated with effigies in armour and long skirt and mantle respectively, set on a chest tomb with carved shields and angels, probably erected circa 1460. Another similar effigy, probably to Sir William Harcourt (died 1482 or later), stands on a chest tomb with carved angels. William Holte (died 1514) and his wife are commemorated with sandstone effigies on a chest tomb.

A portrait bust of 1883 commemorates John Rogers, MA (died 1555), born in Deritend, Birmingham in 1500. Rogers was instrumental in the translation and revision of the Matthews Bible, which became the standard translation in 1537. He was burned at the stake in 1555 as part of Mary Tudor's persecution of Protestants.

A mural monument with the kneeling figures of Edward Holte (died 1592) and his wife Dorothy is set in a recess with Corinthian columns. Effigies of Sir Edward Devereux (died 1622) and his wife Katherine stand on an altar tomb in black marble and alabaster under a pediment carried on Corinthian columns.

A fine monument of the early 18th century with weeping putti commemorates Sir Thomas Holte (died 1654) who built nearby Aston Hall. A draped tablet commemorates Henry Charles (died 1700), servant to the Holte family for 33 years. A highly architectural monument to Sir John Bridgman (died 1710) was designed by James Gibbs in 1726. A mural monument in the Baroque style commemorates Sir Charles Holte (died 1722).

A mural monument to Robert Holden (died 1730) and wife Laetitia (died 1751) by Michael Rysbrack, 1753, features angel heads. A portrait medallion with mourner commemorates Sir Charles Holte (died 1782). A sarcophagus on lion feet commemorates Sir Lister Holte, by Westmacott, 1794. John Feeney (1809-1899), benefactor of the church, is commemorated with an Arts and Crafts plaque with classical surround and figures by George Frampton, 1901.

History

A church at Aston is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086), when Aston was a much more significant settlement than Birmingham, valued at 100 shillings as opposed to Birmingham's 20 shillings. At times during the Middle Ages the advowson was held by members of the de Erdington family. Thomas de Erdington founded a chantry in the church in 1449, and the family are commemorated in the Erdington Chapel in the current church.

From the mid-16th century until 1818, the advowson descended with the manor of Aston, falling to the prominent Holte family who built nearby Aston Hall in the early 17th century and remained lords of the manor for some 200 years. Members of the Holte family have monuments in the present church. Later in the 19th century, the advowson was with the Aston Trustees, with whom it has stayed.

The earliest surviving part of the current church is a small amount of 14th-century stonework set in the north aisle wall, though this is not legible as part of the earlier church building. The west tower was built during the 15th century, and its spire renewed by John Cheshire in 1776-7. Drawings indicate that during the early 19th century, the church had a chancel with an east window of circa 1300 of three lights and intersecting tracery, and with three south windows. The nave had a low-pitched roof, and the blocked head of a former chancel arch showed above the low-pitched chancel roof. The south aisle had three south lancet windows and an 18th- or early-19th-century east window, above which was the blocked pointed head of the earlier east window. The mullions of the aisle and clerestory windows had been removed in 1790 when the roof and interior of the church had been restored.

Julius Alfred Chatwin, the foremost church architect in Birmingham in the later 19th century, set about rebuilding the church during the later 19th century. Construction was carried out in phases from 1879. The construction of the chancel and Erdington Chapel was anonymously funded by John Feeney, owner of the Birmingham Post. Feeney was buried at the church and is commemorated with a memorial by George Frampton, RA. The chancel and south chapel were complete by 1883, and the nave finished in 1889. The final elements, including the south porch, were not completed until 1908, the year after Chatwin's death.

The building incorporated embellishments from the earlier church on the site, including some 19th-century stained glass and fragments of the medieval phases, including a 14th-century piscina resited in the south aisle. The south chapel was created as the Erdington Chapel to house monuments to that family. A wide range of monuments from the earlier church was incorporated into the new building, ranged along the north and south aisles, north and south sides of the chancel, and in the Erdington Chapel.

A glass and metal-framed meeting room was inserted into the north aisle during the later 20th century. A church centre was built to the north-west in 1980, linked to the church on the north side. In 2009, a cruciform baptismal pool was added to the dais in front of the chancel.