Church Of St Peter And St Mary

STOWMARKET

TM0458 CHURCH WALK 614-1/4/40 (North East side) 28/07/50 Church of St Peter and St Mary (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH WALK Church of Saints Peter and Mary)

GV I

Parish church. Mid C14 nave, aisles and chancel. West tower mid C15 (`new' in 1453), clerestory and north and south porches also mid C15. Spire re-built 1712. Restored 1825, vestry added 1855, tower restored 1894, spire removed 1975. Flint with ashlar dressings under slate roofs. 4-stage tower with set-back buttresses and 2-light belfry windows. Crenellated flushwork parapet. Stump of octagonal copper-clad spire formerly with balcony. 6-bay south aisle fitted with 3-light Flowing tracery windows between stepped buttresses. North aisle outwardly of 7 bays owing to addition of east chapel: similar 3-light Flowing fenestration. 4-light aisle west windows, the north aisle also with 3 cusped roundels beneath. Clerestory windows of double cusped lancets. Tall crenellated south porch with flushwork arcading and diapering and niches left and right. Similar north porch. 2-bay chancel fitted with 3-light C14 Flowing tracery windows and a 5-light Reticulated east window. INTERIOR. 7-bay arcade consisting of 4-lobed piers with keels to the north side and fleur-de-lys piers on the south with mushroom capitals. Triple-chamfered tower arch and wave-moulded chancel arch, the latter on lobed piers. The roofs are boarded. Four C15 bench ends remain, the remainder 1837. East bay of north aisle with a monument under a crocketed ogee arch, mid C14. North aisle with wall monument to Margaret English, 1604: high-relief figures of Margaret facing husband, 7 sons and 5 daughters across a prayer-desk; 2 Renaissance arches with putti heads on rear wall. Wall monument to John Gilbert, 1641. Alabaster and marble. Predella and apron below figures of Gilbert and wife framed by pair of Corinthian columns below broken segmental pediment. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Suffolk: Harmondsworth: 1974-: 443-444).

Listing NGR: TM0492058680