Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

This is the parish church of Boughton, a substantial medieval building of 13th-century origin with significant 14th and 15th-century additions. The church was substantially restored in 1871 by the architect St. Aubyn at a cost of £2,000. It is constructed of flint and rubble with plain tiled roofs.

The building comprises a chancel with north and south chapels, a south transept, a nave with north and south aisles, a western tower, and a north porch. The three-stage western tower is the dominant feature, rising with a plinth, string courses, cornice and battlements. It has three offset diagonal buttresses and a south-east stair turret, its form progressing from square in the lower stages to octagonal in the upper stages. The tower is entered through a triple hollow-moulded west doorway with drip mould, above which sits a three-light Perpendicular traceried west window. The south aisle and south transept display 15th-century Perpendicular fenestration, notably a large five-light south window, with a single 13th-century lancet in the east wall of the transept. The south transept features two large offset diagonal buttresses. The south chapel is lit by paired ogee-headed cusped lights. The chancel has lancet windows and a triple lancet east window. The north chapel is lit by lancet windows. The north aisle features a plinth, string course and parapet with small projecting rood vice and Perpendicular tracery. The north porch has a hollowed chamfered north doorway with attached shafts and moulded surround with drip mould.

Internally, the church displays sophisticated 13th and 14th-century architectural detailing. The tower arch is hollow chamfered with an octagonal moulded surround and octagonal moulded responds. The tower floor level is lower than the nave, and the tower cutting has exposed the original quoins of the nave west wall. The nave arcade consists of three and a half bays to the north and two and a half bays to the south, with a solid west bay. The piers are octagonal (except for one round pier in the north arcade) with double chamfered arches. A double hollow chamfered 14th-century arch on corbels opens to the south transept. The roof is of five crown posts with the east and west posts raised. The south and north aisles have lean-to roofs. The south transept has a single chamfered arch to the south aisle and a double hollow chamfered arch to the south chapel, with a crown post roof on knee braces. Some partial survival of a roll-moulded string course remains. The chancel arch features a drip and keeled roll mould on carved head corbels. The chancel has a two-bay arcade to the south chapel with double chamfered arches on an octagonal pier and responds. The triple lancet east window has slender attached shafts and a heavy moulded string course. The lancet on the south wall has been brought down to ground level to accommodate sedilia. There is a two-bay double chamfered arcade to the north chapel with a heavily moulded and undercut pier. The north chapel has a trussed roof, heavy string course, double chamfered arch to the north aisle, and a roof of two crown posts.

The church retains important ecclesiastical fittings. A 15th-century screen extends from the north aisle to the north chapel, featuring a rood stair and three bays with cusped tracery. A five-bay 16th-century chancel screen has a panelled cusped base with four traceried lights to each bay, crenellated and sloping transoms, and attached shafts, showing Renaissance details in its carving and enrichment. The top beam has been renewed. A three-bay screen to the south chapel features moulded mullions, cusped tracery and four-centred arched heads. Two-tier sedilia in the chancel are accompanied by a cusped ogee-headed piscina with attached shafts. Aumbreys are positioned to left and right on the east wall. The south chapel contains a sedile, a reset brattished cornice, and a trefoil-headed piscina. A 14th-century cusped ogee wall niche with attached colonnettes runs into the string course. Holy water stoups are located in the south aisle and, with a four-centred arched head, incised spandrels and moulded comb, in the north aisle.

The church contains an exceptionally rich series of monuments spanning from the medieval period to the 19th century. In the chancel, the sedilia are backed with incised heraldic achievements. The south chapel houses the monument to John Petit (died 1630), a black wall plaque with white surround, moulded head and scrolled achievement on pilasters with obelisk finials, bearing small relief figures of a man and woman opposite each other at a prayer desk with a winged cherub base. George Farewell (died 1741) is commemorated by a marble plaque wrapped around the central pier of the chancel arcade, with moulded base and top and a shield above. In the south aisle, Anne Alleyn (died 1713) has a black wall plaque with bolection-moulded surround, cornice and scrolled achievement. The north chapel contains the exceptional monument to Thomas Hawkins (died 1617), signed by the sculptor Epiphanius Evesham. This features a knight and lady recumbent on a sarcophagus with a rear screen and inscription partly in Latin (indicating a Catholic family), accompanied by carved symbols of death, cherubs' heads, arms and trophies, and a scrolled semi-pediment on pilasters. Two alabaster panels on the sides of the tomb chest show seven sons and six daughters of varying ages grieving and expressing their emotion, surrounded by their favourite objects and pets (similar panels appear at Lynsted). Also in the north chapel, John Hawkins is commemorated by a white wall plaque set up by his grandson Thomas Hawkins in 1749 to mark the family's preservation of its fortunes during the Interregnum. Dame Mary Knatchbull (died 1850) is remembered by a 13th-century style coffin slab incised with a cross and inscription, enclosed by a railed enclosure incorporating earlier monuments. In the tower, Henry Pettit (died 1807) has a black wall plaque with white marble surround and pilasters with incised flowers in vases and a scrolled apron. Sir John Routh is commemorated by a late 17th-century white marble wall plaque with egg-and-tongue and bolection-moulded surround, heavy bracketed base, scrolled and garlanded sides, Ionic attached columns, cornice, frieze, scrolled pediment and achievement.

The church contains several medieval brasses. In the south transept, John Bett (died 1508) is represented by poorly engraved 15-and-a-half-inch figures of John and Joan with an English inscription. Elizabeth Driland (died 1591) has a 19-and-a-half-inch well-engraved brass showing figures of a man and woman with four mourning daughters and missing sons, with partially lost coats of arms. Also in the south transept are Latin inscriptions to John Collins (died 1450) and Sir(?) Petit of Colkins (died 1596). In the north chapel, Thomas Hawkins (died 1587, aged 101) is commemorated by an armoured figure 34 inches long with a fulsome inscription. Nearby is a small wall plaque to Elionor Sea, his wife (died 1553).