Church Of Ss Peter And Paul

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a parish church dating back to the medieval period. The chancel was rebuilt in 1853, and the church was restored between 1879 and 1880. It comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, a west tower, a south porch, and a north vestry. The construction is primarily flint rubble, with the tower faced in knapped flint, and stone dressings. The nave roof is clad in copper, while the chancel roof is slated.

The church’s most prominent feature is its fine 15th-century square tower, rising in four stages with diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet. A polygonal stair turret projects on the south side, rising above the parapet. A frieze of cusped panels bearing shields runs around the tower's plinth. The west doorway is decorated with fleurons, crowns, mitres, and shields, and a hoodmould with rose-carved spandrels. Part of the original door remains. Above the doorway is a three-light window flanked by canopied image niches; renewed three-light belfry openings are situated above.

The main body of the nave is largely 15th century. To the south are four tall, restored two-light windows, accompanied by a moulded south doorway with a hoodmould supported by two large crowned heads. An original 15th-century porch with its original roof adjoins the south side. The north side features a range of five two-light clerestory windows. The 15th-century north aisle was extended by two bays to the east around 1475 to form a Lady Chapel, though the windows are now renewed. The chancel is in Perpendicular style, with a four-light east window and two-light windows to the south.

Inside, a low six-bay aisle arcade, possibly dating to the late 13th century, divides the nave from the aisle. The Lady Chapel has arches leading to both the chancel and the nave aisle. The nave roof retains an incomplete 15th-century cornice with embattled ornament and fleurons. The remainder of the roof appears to be a 17th-century reconstruction. The nave aisle retains its original roof; the main components are moulded, with two lower, needle tie beams inserted in the 17th century, one bearing the date 1621. Four 15th-century wall paintings are on the north nave wall, depicting St. Christopher, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Acts of Mercy, and the Last Judgement. A mid-15th-century carved octagonal font has a cover dated 1879. Four benches with 15th-century poppyhead ends and carved armrests are located at the east end of the nave aisle. The remaining seating in the nave and chancel dates from the mid to late 19th century. A large marble monument to Thomas Maynard (1742) by Charles Stanley stands against the east wall of the Lady Chapel, depicting a life-size figure against an urn on a pedestal, with a carved relief of women and children on the pedestal itself, all set against a black marble obelisk. Two ledger slabs at the east end of the nave bear 17th-century brass inscriptions.