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

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

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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