Church Of Ss Peter And Paul

Church of SS Peter and Paul

This parish church, located on Church Road in Watlington, dates largely from the late 13th and 14th centuries and underwent significant restoration between 1900 and 1902. The building is constructed of carstone with some brick and ashlar quoins. The nave and aisles are roofed with leaded tiles, while the chancel has black glazed pantiles.

The three-stage west tower is clasped by the aisles and supported by two stepped buttresses to the west, which rise a half stage higher. The second stage contains a 2-light window to the west with lights separated by a late 13th-century polygonal shaft, and a lancet window to the north. A 15th-century hexagonal brick stair turret rises from the south side into the second stage; it is constructed of brick with an arcade of two arches on each face at the top. The lower half is interrupted by the westward extension of the aisle in the 16th century, though it remains continuous internally. The restoration of 1902 included new 2-light Y-tracery belfry windows and a crenellated brick parapet with corner finials.

The aisle west windows feature 2-light Y tracery. The south porch has a high 13th-century arch with an undercut inner doorway with mouldings on one order of colonnettes of similar date. The south aisle displays three 2-light restored Y-tracery windows. A clerestory of four 2-light square-headed windows with triangular arches runs along the nave. The east window of the aisle is similar but contains three lights. The chancel has three south windows and two buttresses, with two windows and one buttress to the north; all feature 2-cusped ogee lights supporting a 4-petal vesica below a hood mould on head stops, dating to the mid-14th century. An arched priest's door opens to the south, and there are a blocked door to the north and three aumbry recesses of mixed sizes, plus one arched statuary niche. The south-east chancel has an angle buttress; the north-east corner is flat. The 5-light flowing east window takes the form of two super-arches with a central splayed vesica; the tracery features mouchette variations. The north aisle east window matches the chancel side windows. The north aisle contains a 3-light window to the east bay under a square head, echoed on a smaller scale at the west end, between which are two 2-light restored Y-tracery windows and a blocked north door.

Internally, the church features a four-bay octagonal arcade with piers supporting moulded polygonal capitals and bases. These piers carry double hollow arches with hoods, with clerestory windows positioned over the apices. The tower arch responds are demi-octagonal with hollow chamfered arches below hood moulds. The aisle west bays clasping the tower are blocked by masonry to the north and a stud wall to the south. Within the south-west bay, the stair turret has a double chamfered arched door below a hollow rubbed brick hood. The chancel arch matches the arcade design. The nave roof employs arched braces on wall posts supporting moulded principals and arched collars, with one tier of moulded butt purlins and a triangular ridge piece. The aisle roofs have been restored.

The south-east nave chapel contains a double piscina formed by two round trefoiled arches on an octagonal column within a square surround. A squint allows views to the high altar. The north chancel door has wave moulding and is now blocked, with a wall recess to the east. The chancel features sedilia and piscina in a range of four cusped ogee arches on round columns. The east window is shafted. The chancel dado was panelled during the 1902 restoration. A five-bay chancel screen with a wider central opening features each bay with 2-lights separated by circular muntins, the bays separated by stiles with engaged shafts. The bays have ogee arches with Y tracery containing mouchettes and reticulation net beneath the top rail; all but the heads and some stiles are restored.

A wall monument to John Cake, dated 1628, stands in the chancel. It has a marble surround with Ionic unfluted engaged columns supporting a curved entablature below an urn carved with a coat of arms, with a painted kneeling effigy before a reading desk. A wall monument in the nave chapel to Thomas Cawsel and his wife, dated 1600, features an inscribed base on console brackets with a coat of arms above, a central inscribed panel with two headless kneeling figures between fluted and reeded pilasters, and a moulded cornice below the achievement.

A hexagonal early 17th-century pulpit has arcaded panels with arches featuring chain motifs and carved spandrels. A complete set of late 15th-century benches remain, featuring pierced backs, poppyheads, and animal or figurative arm rests. An early 16th-century octagonal font has a lead bowl liner with eight carved upright figures against the stem separated by rolls that develop into tierceron vaults under the bowl. Each side of the bowl is divided into two arched panels, concave at the base, each containing figures on pedestals. The font cover, dating to around 1620, has eight annullated columns supporting a carved arcade below a hollow dentil cornice and conical top, with a finial in the form of a pelican on a ball. Between the arcade arches are alternating shields bearing an inscription dated 1..6..B..L.