Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Teston

A parish church rebuilt in 1736 for Sir Philip Boteler, with alterations made in 1848. The building is constructed of roughly coursed galleted ragstone with ashlar dressings, and is roofed with plain tile. The spire is finished with wood shingles.

The church is cruciform in plan with a west tower. The west tower rises in two stages, featuring a red and grey brick parapet with ashlar dressings above an ashlar plat band. An octagonal spire with weathervane crowns the tower. The belfry stage has round-arched louvred windows with keystones, and a smaller round-headed window with keystone lights the base of the upper stage. Narrow round-headed windows occupy the low sections in the angles between tower and nave. The west entrance consists of recessed panelled double doors set within a proud eared and shouldered stone architrave, surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with moulded stone cornice. The architrave is hinged on each side to accommodate outer doors.

The nave features a south-west buttress and stone-coped gable ends with moulded stone kneelers. Two round-headed windows with proud stone architraves, plain imposts and keystones light the south elevation. The north elevation is similar, with an additional west end buttress. The south transept has flanking gable buttresses and a stone-coped gable with moulded kneelers. Its windows date from the 19th century. A doorway similar to the west entrance is present, but with an ashlar panel replacing the fanlight. A small round-headed panelled door with bevelled stone architrave opens to the east, and a small iron oven door is located at the base of the south side.

The chancel has flanking gable buttresses and stone-coped gable ends with moulded kneelers. Single-light 19th-century windows light the north and south walls, while a 19th-century three-light window is set in the east wall. A memorial tablet with shallow cornice and consoles, erected to Reverend James Ramsay (died 1789), is positioned at the east end. The north transept is similarly gabled but lacks an east window; a 19th-century west light and a three-light 19th-century north window with moulded stone cill extending across the gable end below it provide illumination.

Internally, the entrance lobby beneath the tower features channelled render to the walls and a plastered quadripartite vault springing from bell corbels. A large blocked round-headed window between the nave and ringing chamber retains its proud stone architrave, imposts and keystone. Internal doorways to the transepts match the design of external doorways. Throughout, the roof is canted and boarded.

The interior contains several notable fittings. A medieval two-light window with trefoil-headed lights and an un-traceried pointed arch has been re-set as a sedile in the south wall of the chancel. Adjacent to it stands a medieval stone aumbry with chamfered segmental head. A blocked window with triangular head is present in the north wall of the chancel. The wooden reredos, dating to circa 1736, extends across the east end with a broad central panel flanked by fluted engaged Corinthian columns and surmounted by a dentilled and moulded open-topped triangular pediment. Four side panels feature fluted Corinthian pilasters and dentilled and moulded cornicing. The central panel bears an eared and shouldered surround containing the Ten Commandments, while outer panels display texts, the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. A hexagonal 18th-century pulpit with inlaid fielded panels, moulded base and cornice, and turned balusters to the stairs is also present, alongside an octagonal stone font. An iron heating grille with fretwork design runs up the centre of the nave and across the transepts. Royal Arms signed and dated by John Adams in 1811 hang on the east wall of the north transept, and six funeral hatchments adorn the nave.