Church of St Peter and St Mary is a Grade I listed building in the Mid Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 July 1950. A C14 Church.
Church of St Peter and St Mary
- WRENN ID
- woven-footing-jay
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Mid Suffolk
- Constituency
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP: Dr Peter Prinsley (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 July 1950
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Peter and St Mary, Church Walk, Stowmarket
- OS grid reference
- TM 049 586
- Coordinates
- 52.18829, 0.99643
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Peter and St Mary is a parish church dating to the mid-14th century, originally comprising a nave, aisles, and chancel. A west tower was added in the mid-15th century, with a clerestory and north and south porches also of that period. The spire was rebuilt in 1712 and subsequently removed in 1975. The church was restored in 1825, with a vestry added in 1855 and the tower restored in 1894. The building is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs.
The tower is four-stage, featuring set-back buttresses and two-light belfry windows, with a crenellated flushwork parapet. A copper-clad, octagonal spire formerly topped the tower, and included a balcony. The south aisle has six bays, featuring three-light Flowing tracery windows set between stepped buttresses. The north aisle appears outwardly to have seven bays, due to the addition of an east chapel; it also has similar three-light Flowing fenestration. The west windows of both aisles are four-light, and the north aisle also has three cusped roundels beneath. The clerestory windows are double-cusped lancets. The tall, crenellated south porch has flushwork arcading, diapering, and niches on either side, while a similar porch is present on the north side. The two-bay chancel has three-light 14th-century Flowing tracery windows and a five-light Reticulated east window.
Internally, the church features a seven-bay arcade with four-lobed piers and keels to the north side, and fleur-de-lys piers with mushroom capitals on the south. A triple-chamfered tower arch and a wave-moulded chancel arch are also prominent, the latter resting on lobed piers. The roofs are boarded. Four 15th-century bench ends remain, alongside later benches dating to 1837. In the east bay of the north aisle is a mid-14th century monument under a crocketed ogee arch. A wall monument to Margaret English, dated 1604, depicts Margaret facing her husband, alongside seven sons and five daughters set across a prayer desk, with two Renaissance arches and putti heads on the rear wall. A wall monument to John Gilbert, dated 1641, is also present, constructed of alabaster and marble, with a predella and apron featuring Corinthian columns and a broken segmental pediment framing figures of Gilbert and his wife.
Local climate
Church of St Peter and St Mary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 92% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 58% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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