Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

A parish church with 12th-century origins, situated on Church Road at Black Notley. The building comprises a 12th-century nave, a chancel that may date from the 12th century but was possibly rebuilt in the 15th or 16th centuries, an early 16th-century south porch, a mid-14th-century west bell turret, and a 19th-century north vestry with organ chamber. The church has undergone considerable restoration work.

The exterior walls are constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings, covered with red plain tiled roofs featuring ornate ridge tiles. The west bell turret is vertically boarded with an octagonal shingle spirelet, equipped with two-light sounding louvres to each face and four circular holes either side of the louvres.

The chancel features red brick angle buttresses, one of which is inscribed with the date 1682 and the letters I.P. A 20th-century three-light east window with top tracery has a two-centred head and label. The north wall displays a gabled north vestry with a 19th-century two-light window with top tracery and a two-centred head. A vertically boarded door on the vestry's west wall has a two-centred head and label. To the west of the vestry is a restored 15th-century two-light window with tracery in a square head. The south wall contains a 19th or 20th-century two-light window with tracery in a two-centred head and label.

The south wall of the nave includes a window similar to that in the chancel but larger with different tracery; its internal details are restored 14th-century work. There are two much-restored 12th-century round-headed windows. Between them is a 12th-century plain semi-circular doorway, also restored, with a 19th or 20th-century door but retaining good 12th-century ironwork. Remains of a third 12th-century window are visible to the east. The north wall east window is similar to that in the vestry. Two 12th-century windows on the north wall resemble those in the south wall. A small red brick loop east of the east window originally provided light to the rood stairs. The north doorway is not visible externally. The west wall contains a 15th-century three-light window with vertical tracery in a four-centred head, above which is a 19th-century two-centred arch light with label.

The south porch has a crenellated wall plate, early moulded side purlins, moulded tie beams and principal rafters, and chamfered common rafters with foliate stops on all main timbers. The 19th-century flint base supports six-light side walls. The porch contains timber seats and carved spandrels to a segmental arch with cusped sidelights. Moulded bargeboards finish the gable. A stoup stands east of the doorway, comprising a rough stone basin in a triangular recess, possibly dating from the 16th century.

Interior: The chancel features a boarded 15th-century seven-cant roof with moulded wall plates and carved bosses at angles, plus a moulded tie beam. A 19th-century piscina has an ogee head and two quatrefoil drains. The sedilia, with a 14th-century segmental pointed head and stop-chamfered jambs, are restored. A 19th-century door to the north vestry has a segmental pointed arch and label. The chancel contains 19th-century wrought iron altar rails and a 20th-century stained glass east window installed after bomb damage in the Second World War. Graffiti dated 1699 appears on the north wall window cill. There is no chancel arch. A tie beam features carved spandrels to braces and stone corbels supporting an ornate fleur-de-lis rood, beneath a boarded upper arch. The chancel screen comprises five bays with a moulded top plate with bosses, a panelled base with each bay containing two lights with tracery, and double matching doors to the centre.

The nave contains an oak two-centred arch doorway on the north wall, brick stairs leading to the former rood loft, and a blocked 12th-century north doorway. A 14th-century piscina in the south wall has a cinquefoiled pointed head, chamfered and hollow-chamfered jambs with broach stops, and a quatrefoil drain. A 19th-century carved panel pulpit stands on a stone base and is octagonal in plan. The roof is of seven cants with scissors bracing, featuring moulded and crenellated wall plates and two sunk-chamfered tie beams.

The bell turret comprises three bays to the east, the centre bay having arched braces forming a four-centred arch, with cross braces to the other bays. The square upper part features curved struts on the north and south sides and a pyramidal roof with spirelet.

The church contains two hatchments on the north and south walls, a small stone altar on the north wall of the bell turret, and a heavy dug-out chest with plain iron band hinges. Wall monuments commemorate W. Rayment (1766), E. Notledge (1879), Thomas Dent (1741), and Thomas Simpson (1836). Four floor slabs serve the Notledge, Wydental, Coker, and Pylae families. A 19th-century stone octagonal font is decorated with quatrefoils to its panels. A small painting hangs on the south wall. The church is documented in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments.