Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

Parish church. The building dates from around 1300 with sporadic building programmes continuing to around 1450, and underwent restoration in 1878–9. It is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings and lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, aisles and chancel. The west tower, built around 1300, has three stages with angle buttresses. Statue niches are set into the western buttresses beneath trefoil heads with crocketted gables. A stair turret rises on the south-east. The belfry windows, two lights with arched heads, sit below a pierced crenellated parapet dating to around 1450. A lead spire, also mid-15th century, is supported on eight flying buttresses, each with crocketted finials forming a corona.

The south aisle windows were replaced in the mid-15th century with Perpendicular fenestration beneath four-centred arches, though two early 14th-century fragments survive: a four-light east window, a four-light west window, and two three-light windows in the flank. Flat buttresses support the structure. The south porch, dating to the mid-15th century, has diagonal buttresses and tiers of flushwork blind tracery panels on its south and east faces. An arched door sits beneath a trefoiled statuary niche with a gabled roof behind the parapet. Two-light side windows flank the entrance. The inner door is arched with wave mouldings and a fleuron-leaf trail in the arch.

The clerestory dates to the mid-15th century and contains nine three-light windows beneath depressed arches with continuous hood mould. The chancel is structurally of the early 14th century but now carries mid-15th-century windows except for an early 14th-century two-light west window consisting of a single retriculation unit. An arched priest's door opens to the south, alongside a three-light Perpendicular window beneath a depressed arch. Diagonal eastern buttresses support the structure, and a five-light east window, dating to 1450–80, features super mullions and two crenellated transoms. A three-light four-centred window above the chancel arch opens to the nave and dates to a similar period.

A north chapel was added in the 1460s, necessitating the relocation of the north-east buttress. It has a depressed three-light window to the east with blocked parvis lights above and on the north face. A square-headed priest's door provides access. Flat buttresses support the north aisle, which displays four three-light Perpendicular windows, one raised above the north door.

Interior

The interior features a five-bay arcade with quatrefoil piers decorated with rolls between the lobes to the north and keels to the south, set upon round moulded bases and polygonal plinths. Polygonal capitals support double sunk quadrant arches. The clerestory windows have rere arches and engaged columns on polygonal bases beneath the capitals. A complex moulded tower arch has octagonal responds. The chancel arch is late 14th century in character, matching the arcades.

The nave roof is a hammerbeam roof of ten trusses with arched braces dropping to wall posts on corbels carved in the form of angels. The main and brace spandrels have pierced tracery. Two tiers of butt purlins and a ridge piece run the length of the roof. A crenellated tie beam sits over the rood. A window above the chancel arch is shafted. The aisle roofs feature wall and arched braces, with the arched braces having pierced tracery spandrels, three moulded butt purlins, and principals matching those of the nave. These roofs date to the mid-15th century. An early 17th-century tower gallery, featuring turned balusters and a moulded handrail, sits above a heavy 15th-century bressummer.

The font is octagonal and dates to the 14th century, with tracery panels on the stem and quatrefoils decorating the bowl. Two fragments of rood screen, each comprising three and a half bays, survive at the west end of the nave; these date to around 1500 and are painted with tracery panels. A south nave chapel screen divides the aisle from the nave. It features a central ogeed opening with irregular three-light bays to right and left, all displaying Perpendicular tracery net in their heads. The painted dado carries ogeed blind tracery. Tierceron coving to the east and west has a moulded top rail with cusped decoration above. A 14th-century parclose screen divides the chapel from the nave in three square bays, each with three lights divided by circular muntins beneath early Perpendicular lozenge tracery heads and a crenellated top rail. A further screen fragment, featuring cusped ogee lights and additional decoration, is now incorporated into the front of a bench in the chapel. The chancel roof is scissor-braced, a repair undertaken in 1878.

The east window glass is complete and dates to 1480. Its twenty panels below the head depict the Annunciation to Pentecost cycle and figures of Sir William Chamberlayne (died 1462) and Sir Robert Lingfield (died 1480), the latter of whom donated the glass.

Monuments in the south-east nave chapel include, to the east, the tomb of Sir Robert Harling (died 1435). It comprises a quatrefoiled tomb chest surrounded by an ogeed canopy, cusped and sub-cusped with leaf decoration and symbolic figures. Two alabaster effigies lie within, though not in their original positions. To the west is the tomb of Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1604) and his wife, constructed of alabaster and marble with two effigies on a heraldic tomb chest set behind a screen of three modified Tuscan columns supporting an entablature and achievement. Obelisks mark the corners. The rear wall bears inscriptions between strapwork pilasters.

Monuments in the chancel include, between the chancel and north chapel, the tomb of Sir William Chamberlayne (died 1462). It features a panelled tomb chest with a four-centred canopy having a vaulted ceiling and panelled sides; the sides contain niches for figures. Wide diagonal buttresses, also panelled and with niches, flank five ogeed overlights with crocketted finials rising to a crenellated top rail. An achievement crowns the monument. To the east lies the tomb of Sir Francis Lovell (died 1551), with a panelled tomb chest divided by fluted pilasters. A flat canopy against the wall is framed by Doric columns on plinths, carrying an entablature with a circular pediment bearing inscription plates. On the south wall opposite stands an identical tomb of Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1567).

The chancel contains six 15th-century stalls with misercords and figured arm rests, together with many poppy-head benches of similar date. A trefoiled holy water stoop by the north door of the nave is carried on a faceted stem. A fragment of wall painting survives in the north nave wall. A well-painted restoration of the Royal Arms of Charles II, dated 1660, adorns the interior. The south door lobby contains 17th-century carved panels beneath the remains of an early 14th-century south aisle window.