Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a parish church on the west side of Lynsted Street in Lynsted. Dating primarily to the 14th century with 13th-century features, the chancel was rebuilt in the 16th century and the whole building underwent restoration in the 19th century.

The exterior is constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof and shingle spire. The building comprises a nave and aisles, chancel, north and south chapels, a north-west tower, south porch, and a south-east attached vault. The north-west tower has four stages with triple offset diagonal buttresses. Its upper stages are weatherboarded, and it is topped by a broach spire. Most of the fenestration dates to the 19th century, though notable exceptions include the south chapel east window with restored cusped 'Y'-tracery, the chancel east window with 16th-century uncusped Perpendicular work of 15 lights, and the north chapel east window with a 15th-century three-light Perpendicular design. The north aisle contains 14th and 15th-century traceried lights and a projecting square external vice. A blocked north doorway features round-headed mouldings with oncushion capitals.

The arrangement of the chapels reveals the original construction history. Exposed quoins and a discontinuous plinth at the east end of the chancel indicate that this part originally stood independently. The north chapel, with 16th-century fenestration, was added to an earlier west bay; its east bay shows this later extension clearly.

The interior reveals substantial medieval carpentry. The nave features three-bay double-chamfered arcades on octagonal piers, north and south, of differing 14th and 15th-century dates. One arch is documented by a bequest to have been built in 1481. A blocked arch to the tower exists at the north-west end. The nave roof has three crown-posts, with the westernmost resting on the hood of the west window. The south aisle roof contains four crown-posts, while the north aisle has a lean-to roof. Chamfered doors with stairs to the rood loft are visible. The chancel arch is double-chamfered and opens into a chancel with two-bay arcades to the chapels. The north chapel has chamfered arches with a large square pier; the south chapel has double hollow-chamfered arches on octagonal piers. The south chapel roof contains three crown-posts.

The chancel and south chapel contain 19th-century stone and wooden screens, and a 19th-century reredos. A brass chandelier dated 1686 survives. The church preserves notable brasses including one to Elizabeth Roper (died 1567) and another to John Worley (died 1621), both two-foot figures.

The monuments are of considerable artistic importance. The south, or Roper, chapel contains the monument to Sir John Roper, 1st Baron Teynham (died 1618), executed in painted alabaster with a stiff recumbent knight and his lady on a marble sarcophagus. A son and two daughters kneel on a rear panel within a coffered niche featuring an architectural surround with Corinthian capitals, dentil cornice, obelisks, and a cartouche. The adjacent monument to Lord Christopher Roper (died 1622) is signed "E. Evesham Me fecit" and is among the major works of the sculptor Epiphanius Evesham. It features plaster figures of a reclining and dying knight draped in his ermine cloak, with his kneeling and mourning wife behind. The knight lies upon a sarcophagus with a central inscription flanked by carved panels showing two sons with their backs turned to their hounds and hawks, and five daughters and grand-daughters. An alabaster architectural surround on Corinthian capitals with pinnacles and a scrolled and pedimented cartouche crowns the composition.

The north chapel, or Huggeson chapel, contains several monuments. Catherine Drurye (née Finche, died 1601) is commemorated with an alabaster hanging monument showing a kneeling couple facing each other with children behind, set on a bracketed base with Corinthian capitals, cornice, and scrolled cartouche. John Huggeson (died 1634) has a monument with kneeling figures on a coved base with Corinthian columns and a broken segmental pediment thrust through another segmental pediment. Josiah Huggeson (died 1639) is remembered with a black plaque draped as in a stage setting, topped with a broken segmental pediment on Corinthian capitals. James Huggeson (died 1646) has a recumbent monument with his wife on a bolection-moulded sarcophagus surrounded by moulded standing figures. Rudolph Weckerlin (died 1667) is commemorated with a black draped wall plaque with putti on a bracketed base and broken segmental pediment on Corinthian capitals. Anne Delaune (died 1719) has a white marble plaque on a scrolled base with cartouche. Martha Huggeson (died 1753) is represented by a white marble tablet with putti and cornice on Ionic columns with urns and cartouche. William Huggeson (died 1774) is memorialised with a white wall plaque on a foliated base surmounted by an obelisk.