Church Of St Peter

691/0/10030 ST PETER'S-IN-THE-FIELDS 28-APR-06 Bocking St Peter's church

II Church. 1897. By J.T. Micklethwaite. Stock brick rendered with pebble dash and red brick dressings with a plain-tile roof. Gothic style, its simplicity partly due to lack of funds which meant that the aisles, tower and north chapel were never built. Present plan of nave and chancel in one with S vestry and N and S porches. East end has a 5-light window with Decorated tracery and the`N wall two small windows, a projecting arch, 5 quatrefoils as a clerestory, and N porch. The lower part of the wall is stock brick. The S wall has a 3-light window with Reticulated tracery in the chancel over the vestry, then various small windows in the base of the intended tower with a bellcote on the aspex of its roof, further windows, the S porch, and clerestory quatrefoils. The W end has a 5-light window with intersecting tracery. INTERIOR. In complete contrast to the exterior this is richly furnished. The E window has stained glass by Kempe and Co. of 1911, and below is a richly carved reredos of 1913. The elaborate screen and altar rails were made by Ernest Beckwith of Coggeshall to the designs of Wykeham Chancellor. The choir stalls and pulpit are also fine. Complete set of pews in the nave. The effect of this is mostly realised by the completion of the intended aisle arcades and by a boarded wagon roof similar to that in the chancel. At the W end is a stone font with, in the W window above, very fine stained glass, using marbled glass, of 1928, by Leonard Walker, the whole producing a very rich and unusual effect. A recent addition has been a bronze statue of St. Peter by John Doubleday. SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE. This late Victorian church by a distinguished architect of the period, although unfinished, has a spacious interior which reflects his intentions and which was richly fitted in the earlier C20, including fine woodwork and stained glass, a particularly unusual and fine feature being the W window of 1928.