Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Bardfield Saling

This is a parish church of the 14th century, said to have been left unfinished at the time of the Black Death in 1348-9. It was consecrated and a chancel added in 1380, with further alterations and additions continuing through the 17th to 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of flint walls with some rendering, and stone and clunch dressings. The nave and chancel are covered with red plain tiled roofs, with the chancel roof hipped and gablet, while the grey slate roof to the south aisle is a lean-to. A stone parapet verge with a cross runs along the nave.

The east wall of the chancel was rebuilt and plastered following rocket damage during the Second World War, and consequently has no east window. The north and south walls each contain a window of two trefoiled ogee lights with tracery under a segmental pointed head, with labels and head stops.

The nave's north wall features four buttresses and two windows of two lights with tracery above, set in two centred heads. The eastern of these windows retains a fragment of medieval glass. A blocked north doorway with a chamfered two-centred arch, label and stops is positioned here. West of this door stands a stoup with a pointed stone head, red brick supports and a stone bowl.

The circular plan west tower is 11½ feet in diameter and rises through three stages with a plain parapet. The ground floor has north, south and west windows, each of one trefoiled light. The second stage has similar windows to the south and west. The bell chamber contains north, south, east and west windows, each of two cinquefoil lights in two-centred heads with labels. A south-east stair turret with cruciform loops is present, and gargoyles project from the parapet.

The south wall of the nave contains a buttress at its west angle and an adjoining two-light window. An east window of three cusped lights with tracery above and a label with foliate stops is also present. Above the chancel arch is a chamfered window opening of one light with a two-centred head.

The south aisle features two buttresses and two restored two-light windows under segmental pointed heads with labels and stops. The south porch dates to the 19th or 20th century and has a two-centred arch. The south doorway is similar to the north door. Above the porch is a stone arch, probably the grooving of a previous porch.

Internally, the nave and chancel have ceiled and plastered seven cant roofs. The chancel probably retains 14th-century wall plates. The nave has four plain tie beams with moulded wall plates. The chancel arch is two-centred and of two orders; on the east side the moulded jambs contain one semi-octagonal and two semi-circular shafts with moulded capitals and a chamfered plinth. South of the chancel arch is an ogee-headed squint cut down to floor level. A mid-15th-century indent of a man and woman with an inscription plate is located on the chancel floor.

A 18th-century gallery occupies the western end of the nave, with a panelled front and two chamfered support columns. The gallery houses an 18th-century chamber organ, formerly the property of Sir George Elvey, organist of the Chapel Royal, Windsor for many years, and dedicated in this church in 1933. Medieval floor tiles are laid below the gallery.

A wooden hexagonal pulpit, carved with angle pilasters and arches in perspective to panels, dates to circa 1625. Carved panelling stands in front of the pulpit. Late 18th-century panelled pews are present. A late 15th-century octagonal font with ogee-headed panels and panelled stem is positioned in the church. A 17th-century oak chest is also present.

The south arcade and aisle comprises three bays with two-centred arches of two moulded orders, moulded labels with head stops. The columns are quatrefoil with keeled rolls between the foils, moulded capitals and bases. Graffiti, including two human figures and inscriptions reading "John Guest 1608", "P. Goodey 1782" and "Thos. Cross 1796", is carved into the bases of the arcade columns.

A 14th-century screen at the eastern end of the arcade contains two bays, each with four trefoiled ogee lights and quatrefoil tracery, moulded mullions, posts and top plate. This screen was formerly used as a reredos to the main altar. Three frames of fine 19th-century straw work at the west end of the aisle were made to fit into it.

A 14th-century piscina in the south wall has a moulded trefoiled ogee head and label, but no bowl. To its west is a crudely worked bowl with foliate decoration, reputed to be part of a pillar piscina. A sedile below the south-east window has its cill carried down to form a seat, with splays cut back and ornamented with cinquefoiled squinches. Early wall painting and inscriptions are preserved to the west of the south doorway.

The east doorway to the west tower has chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch of two moulded orders with a moulded label and head stops. Above it is a window of one trefoiled light.

The round tower is one of six remaining in Essex and is the only example in the United Kingdom of the decorated period. It is apparently the last of its kind to be built in medieval times.