Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

A parish church of late 12th-century origin, extended in the 14th century and again in 1510. It was restored in 1861 by F Preedy, with the tower renewed in 1881. The building comprises a west tower (1510), nave and chancel (12th century), vestry (14th century), south aisle and south chapel (1510).

The west tower is in three stages with diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet. The belfry stage has one window to each side with four trefoiled lights under a four-centred head. The first stage has windows with two cinquefoiled lights under two-centred heads on each side. The ground stage contains a west window of four pointed lights under a two-centred head with a label.

The nave's north wall is divided into four bays by flat pilasters and has an eroded corbel table. The entrance, positioned in the bay to the right of centre, is set in a gabled projection of approximately 500mm with an enriched arch of three orders with jamb shafts. Windows in the other bays are paired, with the left-hand window of each pair blind. All have semi-circular heads and jamb shafts. The left-hand bay also contains a low restored 14th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights under a pointed head.

The south aisle and chapel feature a crenellated parapet and are divided into four bays by stepped buttresses, with a fenestration pattern of 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 windows. Most windows have two trefoiled lights under two-centred heads with hollow moulded responds. The entrance to the aisle in the west bay has a triangular head and moulded surround with a 19th-century door.

The nave's clerestory has four windows: three with two ogee lights under square heads, and one to the east with a single light under a square head. The chancel is divided into three bays by flat pilasters. The 14th-century vestry occupies the left-hand bay and now serves as a heating chamber, blind in this elevation. The central bay contains a 12th-century window with a semicircular head and jamb shafts. The right-hand bay has a restored 14th-century window of two trefoiled lights under a two-centred arch, with the semicircular head of a 12th-century window visible above. The east window is a restored 14th-century window with three trefoiled lights under a two-centred head.

Interior

The nave contains a tall tower arch with a two-centred head and one hollow moulded order. The chancel arch is highly decorative, a 12th-century arch of three orders with engaged jamb shafts and elaborately carved capitals. It was originally semicircular but is now flattened owing to settlement.

The south arcade comprises four bays with hollow moulded octagonal columns and four-centred arches. The chancel's two-bay arcade to the south chapel matches those of the south aisle. The division between the south aisle and south chapel is treated in the manner of a flying buttress.

The roof of the south aisle and chapel are lean-to timber structures of 19th-century date. The nave roof has common rafters with collars braced by straight braces and ashlar pieces; its date is uncertain but it is probably medieval. The chancel roof may date to the 16th century and comprises four bays with arch-braced collars, two purlins and two tiers of curved wind braces. Three tie-beam trusses have been inserted, each with three struts to the collar and V-struts at the apex.

Fittings are largely 19th-century in date. A stone pulpit is present. The font is 12th-century, with low-relief strapwork decoration to the bowl, mounted on a 19th-century cluster of four engaged shafts. In the south chapel, a medieval altar slab with crudely cut consecration crosses is set on a late 20th-century pedestal. Set into the south wall is a memorial slab bearing an incised figure of a priest, Richard Smith, who died in 1554. A table tomb in the northeast corner of the south chapel has three quatrefoils enclosing shields to each side bearing traces of colour. Its top features an incised canopy; the inscription, now removed, recorded the date of the 1510 extensions.

At the west end of the nave are stocks and a whipping post, together with a heavily studded "dug-out" medieval chest.