Church Of St Peter

HEDENHAM CHURCH ROAD TM 39 SW 6/73 Church of St. Peter 5-9-60 (formerly listed as Church of St Mary) - I

Parish church. C14 and C15 with C19 remodelling and addition. Flint with limestone dressings, largely rendered over. lead roof to nave, plain tiles over porch and chancel. West tower, nave, chancel, south porch. Slim, slightly tapering west tower, unbuttressed. Polygonal stair turret on south side. 2-light C15 west window with segmental-arched head; single-light ringing chamber, window above with cinquefoil head. Bell openings now without mullions or tracery; wooden louvres. Double-stepped parapet with flushwork panels, repaired in brick. C15 south porch with blind traceried window panel to west with flint infill. Diagonal staged gable buttresses with flushwork panels; stone kneelers to gable parapet. Sun dial in gable apex. Doorway with engaged polygonal shafts and square dripmould; fleuron decoration to arch, dripmould and capitals. South nave windows of 3.lights, two C15 with castellated transoms, the easternmost with reticulated tracery. Red brick stepped east gable to nave on stone kneelers; short diagonal gable buttresses. Chancel C14 but with much C19 work; 2-light windows with priest's doorbetween openings. At the south-east corner a pedimented wall monument - no visible inscription. Diagonal staged buttresses to east gable with chequer-pattern flushwork panels. 3-light reticulated east window. Coped gable parapet with cross-finial. Slated lean-to organ chamber central on north side of chancel. Three lancets in north wall- of nave. C19 lean- to vestry on north wall of nave. Interior: south porch has original roof with arch-braced principals, ashlar posts on moulded cornice. Medieval south door. C15 nave roof, much repaired; arch braced, bosses at intersections. Re-used C18 screen across tower arch. C19 chancel arch with stiff leaf capitals and decoration to outer order. Early C18 balustrade re-set across chancel arch to form low screen: turned balusters and square panelled newels. Chancel roof C19 arch-braced with waggon-boarded ceiling, all painted 1862- 3 with foliage and figures in roundels under the direction of E.J. Tarver, architect. C19 glass in chancel windows by Hardman (E) and Clayton and Bell (S). Piscina with petalled bowl, stepped-cill sedilia in south wall of chancel; restored ogee heads with crocket-finials. Font, octagonal, with eight engaged shafts around the stem, defaced figure corbels below bowl and traceried panels with shields and roses. Good wall monuments, notably to John Richmond (d.1694), a convex slate tablet flanked by Ionic columns supporting broken segmental pediment (south wall of nave), to Clere Garney (d.1730) to Rev. Peter Foster (d.1812) to Clere Garneys (d.1767). The chancel contains some very fine monuments of the C16 and early C17 to the Bedingfield family.

Listing NGR: TM3120993387