Church of St Peter and St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

Parish church in Swaffham, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries with alterations and restorations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Built in flint and Barnack stone with some brick, under lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, aisles, north and south transepts, and chancel. The tower is in two stages, begun in 1485 and completed between 1507 and 1510 by Master Gyles. It features setback stepped buttresses and a base frieze of roundels containing route tournant and shields. The arched west doorway has multiple mouldings and is flanked either side by a nodding ogee niche below a statuary niche. A 5-light Perpendicular west window is flanked by tall canopied statuary niches set at an angle. The 3-light belfry openings have Perpendicular tracery. Openwork battlements with corner pinnacles were added in 1533. The Gothick lantern and lead spike date from 1778 by John Frost and were rebuilt in 1897.

The aisles have 3-light Perpendicular windows. The north aisle wall was rebuilt in 1462. On the south side is a flint porch entered through 20th-century doors within a moulded 2-centred arch under a square hood, with blind tracery motifs and shields in the spandrels. The porch has a gabled roof with pinnacles and contains a hammerbeam roof of around 1510 with three bays, carved angels against the hammerposts, and doubled angels as ridge bosses. The west aisle window has reticulated tracery. The north aisle has an early 14th-century blocked north doorway at the west end and a blocked mid-14th-century doorway at the east end. Thirteen 3-light clerestory windows with Perpendicular tracery sit under basket arches. The north side has a brick crenellated parapet.

The north transept is lit by a 4-light 19th-century north window (restored 1848–51) and has stepped side buttresses. The south transept features a Decorated 3-light east window and a 4-light Perpendicular south window, also with stepped side buttresses. Between the chancel and north transept is a 2-storey vestry with a library on the upper floor. The chancel, constructed in the mid-15th century, has one 3-light Perpendicular north window, a 5-light Curvilinear east window of 1853, and two 3-light Perpendicular south windows, together with diagonal corner buttresses. The south aisle contains a projection for the Chapel of Corpus Christi, dating from circa 1490–1500 and lit by a 4-light Perpendicular window.

Interior

The church has a 7-bay arcade with piers of quatrefoil section standing on circular bases and with circular capitals, except for the two west bays constructed with the tower, which have polygonal bases and capitals. The arches are double hollow-chamfered. The tower arch is wave and hollow-moulded, with springers for a fan vault remaining to its lower stage. Above is a baluster screen to the tower gallery with twisted and turned balusters from around 1700. The aisle windows and doors sit within tall wall arches.

The nave has an early 16th-century double hammerbeam roof of 14 bays with moulded wall posts on angel corbels. Two tiers of hammerbeams each carry a carved wooden angel with outspread wings bearing shields. The lower hammerbeams have traceried spandrels. The brattished and moulded ashlaring is in two tiers with carved decoration. Moulded cambered collars with cresting and ridge struts are faced by carved angels. Two tiers of moulded butt purlins and a ridge piece complete the roof. Arches from the transepts to the aisles and chancel include a free-standing chancel arch of similar section to the nave arcade. A passage-squint connects the north transept to the chapel, with a doorway into the vestry. The chancel has a 16th-century 6-bay arch-braced roof with one tier of moulded butt purlins.

Fittings and Memorials

The church contains an octagonal Caen stone font of 1851. Two late 15th-century chancel stalls survive: the north stall shows two carved figure scenes depicting a woman holding a rosary, first in a shop and then looking out of the door; the south stall shows two figures of a man with a pack above chained dogs. The remainder of the seating dates from 1851.

An altar tomb against the north chancel wall commemorates John Botewright, died 1474. It has a tomb chest with four shields bearing symbols of the Passion, Trinity, and Botewright's rebus of three boats and three augers, together with a reclining effigy in clerical dress. The cusped mid-16th-century canopy has tracery daggers in the spandrels and a brattished cornice. A wall monument to Katherine Steward, died 1590, features a pair of Doric columns supporting a strapwork achievement with a profile representation of the deceased kneeling at prayer, with an inscription panel below. A brass to Sir John Audley, dating from around 1530, is located on the south transept pier.