Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Edenbridge

The Church of St Peter and St Paul stands on the north side of Church Street in Edenbridge. This parish church has origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, with definite evidence of a church here by the early 12th century. The earliest surviving fabric is a small blocked window of late 11th or very early 12th century date in the west end of the nave. The church developed significantly through the medieval period, with the tower, responds of the south arcade and the south wall dating to the 13th century. The remainder of the south arcade and the chancel were rebuilt in the 14th century. The roofs throughout are probably 15th century. The south chapel is 13th century in origin but was substantially rebuilt around 1499 as a chantry for John Martyn. A 19th-century north vestry was extended in the 20th century. The church was restored in 1860 to designs by Charles Ainslie, with further significant work in the early 20th century.

The building is constructed of stone rubble with stone slate and tiled roofs, and a shingled spire. The plan comprises a nave with a large south aisle, a west tower, and a south porch, with a chancel featuring a south chapel and a north vestry.

The exterior displays architectural development across several centuries. The 13th-century west tower is characterized by small trefoiled lights and bell openings, with a 15th-century broach spire rising above. Giant diagonal buttresses with set-offs and a projecting southwest stair turret reinforce the tower. The Perpendicular west door is moulded with carved spandrels, and a 3-light Perpendicular west window sits above it, alongside a clock face showing only the hour hand. The nave's north wall is buttressed and contains, towards its west end, a narrow early 13th-century lancet and adjacent to it the small blocked window of 11th or very early 12th-century date with a monolithic head. Three 15th-century windows with vertical tracery in varying patterns pierce the north wall. The chancel displays a very unusual early 20th-century east window of three lights, with the outer two cinque-foiled and the inner opening at the top in a curious shape like a quatrefoil without its bottom lobe. The chancel's north windows are late 13th century with cusped Y-tracery. The 20th-century north vestry runs at right angles to the nave, with the remains of a 19th-century lean-to vestry visible behind it. The southeast chapel features a very large 15th-century east window with vertical tracery, a late 13th or early 14th-century two-light window, and a narrow early 13th-century lancet in its south wall. The south aisle has three 15th-century windows with vertical tracery and, to the west of the porch, a narrow 13th-century lancet, probably reset. The south porch is 18th century in origin but was rebuilt in 1909 with a depressed segmental-headed outer doorway. The nave's south door is 14th century with hollow chamfered mouldings.

The interior of both nave and chancel is divided lengthwise into two almost equal halves by the south nave and chancel arcade. The south nave arcade dates to two phases: the east and west responds, which are half-round with moulded capitals, are early 13th century; the octagonal piers and hollow-chamfered arches represent a 14th-century rebuilding when the arcade was also heightened. The three-bay 15th-century chancel arcade was built around 1499, replacing earlier openings, and features octagonal piers with moulded capitals in Perpendicular style. A 14th-century arch between the south aisle and south chapel has two hollow chamfered orders, the inner on moulded corbels with the outer order dying into the wall. The 14th-century chancel arch has two chamfered orders on polygonal responds with moulded capitals. A late 13th-century window with cusped Y-tracery opens internally from the chancel's north wall into the vestry. The stair to the former rood loft survives in the northeast corner of the nave. The west end of the nave and the base of the tower are closed off with glass and timber screens, with the organ placed above, obscuring the tower arch.

The roofs are entirely medieval. The nave and south aisle have 15th-century crown post roofs with main beams supported on short curved braces mounted on carved corbels, some depicting angels or grotesques. The chancel also has a probably 15th-century crown post roof but lacks braces to the main beams. The south chapel roof dates to around 1499 and is of common rafter design.

The principal fixtures include a 13th-century font with a square bowl decorated with blind arcading on five shafts, with a late 14th or 15th-century ogee-shaped cover with crockets on the ribs and a finial. An aumbry is concealed in the chancel's east wall behind Jacobean-style panelling of around 1912. A very unusual 14th-century pillar piscina survives in the south chapel, notable for its lateness as this type, with Decorated style leaves on the bowl. A good pulpit of around 1630-40 features strapwork panels in two tiers, tapering pilasters, and a projecting cornice on the drum, mounted on an early 20th-century base. Royal arms of George I are displayed. Early 20th-century screens in Jacobean style separate the south chapel and chancel.

The church contains good stained glass, including fragments of medieval glass releaded in a chancel north window. The east window features a crucifixion by Burne Jones, originally intended for Crockham Hill church and installed in 1909, when the outer panels were made. The 19th-century chapel east window is also of high quality.

Monuments include a single end piece of Richard Martyn's tomb of 1499, now reset over the south chapel altar as a reredos, the remainder being lost. Wall tablets commemorate William Selyard (died 1595) and Nicholas Seyliad (died 1625), and a brass marks the death of John Selyard in 1558.

The tower clock is said to have been brought from a Southwark church in 1795. The church underwent significant restoration work in the early 20th century, including rebuilding parts of the south wall and extensive refurnishing. The chancel's east window was installed in 1908, replacing a 19th-century Decorated style window. The design is said to be based on a drawing made by George Gilbert Scott of a medieval east window removed in the 19th century, though the design likely represents either a misunderstanding of a late 13th-century three-cusped-light window with a quatrefoil in the head, or was altered to better accommodate the stained glass of the crucifixion in the central light. The Burne Jones glass, originally commissioned to commemorate John Storr for nearby Crockham Hill church, was installed here instead and augmented with additional panels.