Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a church dating from the 14th century, extensively restored in 1877. It is constructed of stone rubble with tile roofs and comprises a west tower, nave, lower chancel, north and south transepts, and a south porch. The tower features diagonal buttresses and a pyramid roof behind solid parapets. It has four bell openings, each with two trefoiled lights and a quatrefoil above a pointed head; the west window is similar in design. The north wall of the nave has three windows, each of two trefoiled ogee lights under a pointed head with a quatrefoil. A blocked doorway with a Tudor-arched head is located between the second and third windows. The south wall of the nave is similar, with a doorway between the first and second windows, which is now accessed through a 19th-century open timber porch with two orders of chamfering. The north and south transept windows are 19th-century designs featuring three trefoiled lights with reticulated tracery. The south wall of the chancel has a trefoil window on the left, followed by one of two trefoiled lights with Y-tracery, and a pointed doorway between them; all of these features are 19th-century additions. The north wall has a window of two trefoiled lights with an opening in the head. The east window is 19th century, with three lights and reticulated tracery.

Inside, the pointed and chamfered tower arch is of two orders. The nave roof is 19th century, with rafters, collars, and slim arch-braced king-post trusses. The pointed chancel arch, also 19th century, has moulded corbels as responds. The transept arches, pointed and 19th century, are chamfered in two orders and have foliated capitals as responds. A font, likely dating from around 1200, has a round bowl on a base with a chamfered plinth. Some bench ends have blind tracery carvings. Fragments of late-medieval heraldic glass are found in the upper lights of the windows; these were reassembled in the south-east chancel window in 1940. A tablet carved with a shield of arms and the date 1572 is set into the east wall of the south transept, below which is a tomb chest from around 1500, featuring a matrix for a brass and panels carved with kneeling figures, with traces of original painting. A large marble monument to Admiral William Caldwell, who died at Birtsmorton Court in 1718, stands on the north side of the chancel; his semi-reclining effigy rests on a tomb chest carved with his flagship. The reredos background is carved with 28 navigational instruments, topped by flaming lamps and a cartouche with military trophies.