Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Folkestone

St Peter's is a Victorian church built between 1862 and 1864 by Richard Charles Hussey of London, with significant enlargements undertaken in 1870 by the local architect Spencer Slingsby Stallwood. An octagonal fleche was added in 1874. The church was purpose-built as a chapel of ease to serve the fishing and marine population of Folkestone, who had ceased attending the parish church of St Mary and St Eanswythe after its restoration and removal of galleries. Lord Radnor provided the site, located behind the fishermen's dwellings. The foundation stone was laid on 29 April 1862, and the building was licensed for public worship by 9 September the same year. It was consecrated on 30 July 1868 by the Archbishop of Canterbury and became a separate parish in the same year, becoming known as the Mariners' Church.

The church is constructed of ragstone with limestone dressings and slate roofs. The architectural style is predominantly Early English. The plan comprises a nave, apsidal chancel, north aisle, north and south transepts, a small west bell turret, a northwest corridor porch, and a north sacristy. The west end features a small square bell turret with a single bell opening and shingled capping in two stages. The octagonal fleche rises over the crossing, with a slated base, timber central stage, and tall lead-covered top. The north aisle is a lean-to construction with a northwest transverse gable containing a two-light plate tracery window. The fenestration throughout is largely 13th-century in character, including cusped lancets in the aisles, a two-light plate tracery window on the south of the chancel, and a three-light east window of around 1300 featuring a cinquefoil in the head, set beneath its own gable. The canted sides of the apse contain single-light trefoil-headed windows. Both transepts have circular windows, differently treated, in their gables. A long corridor-porch extends from the west end of the north aisle beneath an extension of the vicarage.

The interior walls were originally of exposed brick but are now painted white in the body of the church and yellow in the chancel. The north side of the nave features a three-bay arcade with steep double-chamfered arches and round piers with capitals in the style of around 1200, decorated with protruding balls of foliage. The roofs are supported by arch-braces to a collar. The alleyways are laid with red and black tiles in chevron and zig-zag patterns.

The principal fixtures include painted wooden Stations of the Cross, which played a significant role in the ritual controversies surrounding the church and its first perpetual curate, Father Charles Joseph Ridsdale. A delicate wrought iron screen of 1872 sits atop the low walls between the nave and chancel. Traceried oak panelling around the chancel was installed in 1894. At the west end, an organ and choir gallery were installed in 1947 to house an organ of 1896 by Beale and Thynne of London, originally from St Andrew's Home in Folkestone. The octagonal Perpendicular font, installed in 1924, is said to have come from a Norfolk church lost to the sea and bears shields on its bowl. The nave seats, traceried pulpit, and stalls date from the 19th century, with the pulpit and stalls featuring traceried fronts and the stalls having poppy heads.

Richard Charles Hussey (1806–87) was in partnership with Thomas Rickman, the latter famous for his taxonomic categorisation of medieval architecture into periods whose names remain in use today. Hussey had previously worked on the parish church between 1856 and 1859, building its new nave and north aisle. Spencer Slingsby Stallwood (1842 or 1843–1922) was articled to an architect in Marlow from 1857 to 1861, then worked in the Salisbury office of S Clarke until the end of 1862. He subsequently worked in the office of Joseph Gardner of Folkestone until 1870, establishing independent practice in Folkestone in 1873 before later moving to Reading, where he became diocesan surveyor for Berkshire.

During the 1860s and 1870s, under Father Ridsdale, St Peter's became the centre of ritual controversy. In the mid-1870s, the Folkestone Ritual Case saw Ridsdale accused of advanced Anglo-Catholic practices including the use of lighted candles on the altar, the wearing of Eucharistic vestments, and the adoption of Stations of the Cross. The case was heard before Lord Penzance at Lambeth Palace in January 1876 and culminated in a landmark judgement of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in May 1877 regarding the legality of such ceremonial practices. As the first clergyman to be prosecuted under the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874, Ridsdale and St Peter's hold a significant place in the development of the Church of England. The Stations of the Cross, removed after Ridsdale's trial, were stored at St Peter's school for nearly fifty years before being reinstalled as greater freedom was permitted in Anglican worship.

An arson attack in 1996 caused substantial damage to the north aisle roof, which was subsequently renewed. An earthquake in 2007 caused the south transept gable end to collapse and roof movement, damage which was subsequently repaired.