Church of St Peter and St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

A medieval church on the north side of Medina Road in Wymering, Portsmouth. The building is constructed of flint with stone dressings and plain tiled roofs with raised ridge pieces. It underwent extensive restoration, rebuilding and additions in 1860–61 under the architect G.E. Street, and is designed in the Early English style.

The plan consists of a four-bay aisled nave, two-bay chancel, north-east sacristy, vestry and choir vestry (formerly the Lady Chapel).

The west face features at its centre a three-light stone window with intersecting tracery, a pointed arch and hoodmould, with a stone sill and rusticated jambs. Flanking offset buttresses each carry a stone pediment at the top and rusticated quoins. To the far left and right are two-light stone windows, each light having a trefoil head. The right window has above it a stone-framed oculus with quatrefoil tracery. A facing-stone coped gable rises from the centre, with a bellcote featuring a sloping cedar-shingled base, open timber arcading and a small shingled splay-footed spire.

The south face has an aisle with short offset buttresses at far left and right. A projecting entrance porch to the left contains a west entrance with a splayed and stepped stone pointed arch, hoodmould and rusticated jambs, along with a roll-band impost and splayed stone plinth. Behind the opening is a boarded door with a twice-splayed head. The porch has a facing-stone coped gable end finial. To either side are narrow splayed trefoil-headed stone windows with rusticated jambs and sills. Further east is a three-light stone window with geometrical tracery, pointed arch and hoodmould with dropped bosses, set within a facing gable. The right return of the aisle features a similar two-light window with plate tracery and rusticated jambs. The chancel has a two-light stone window with tall moulded geometrical tracery. The east face of the lower-roofed chancel has offset diagonal buttresses and at its centre a three-light stone window with geometrical tracery, hoodmould and dropped bosses, under a facing stone coped gable and finial.

The north face has a projecting vestry with angled offset buttresses and at its centre a recessed boarded door under a stone roll-moulded segmental arch set within a pointed arch with hoodmould. To the right is a two-light stone geometrically traceried window with a pointed arch and hoodmould that intersects with the door hoodmould. The left (east) return of the vestry has on its right a two-light stone window with a shouldered arch and a colonnette at centre with an octagonal head and base. To the left of this window is a projecting panel with stone coping, above which sits a plate-traceried stone oculus with recessed trefoil ribs and a segmental hoodmould. To the right (west) of the vestry is a three-light stone window with intersecting tracery, set within a facing gable. Further right is a mid-20th-century passage connection to the church hall of no special interest. To the right of this connection are two stone trefoil-headed windows similar to those on the south face.

The interior contains a late 12th-century north arcade with stone columns and square scalloped capitals, with chamfered pointed arches and hoodmoulds. An early 13th-century south arcade features very slender columns and broad moulded capitals, above each of which is a short stone cylinder wider than the column from which spring hollow chamfered pointed arches with hoodmoulds. The nave roof has a hammer-beam truss at the west end and eastwards three king-post trusses with boarded ceilings. Aisle windows feature stained glass depicting biblical figures and have lean-to roofs. At the east is a stepped and moulded pointed chancel arch. The east window contains stained glass by Clayton and Bell.