Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

This parish church dates from around 1200, with a 14th-century chapel and 15th-century windows. It was substantially rebuilt and restored between 1858 and 1870 by E.L. Blackburne. The building is constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof and comprises a south chapel, nave and aisles, a north-west tower, and a north porch.

The tower and integral north porch, with its adjoining stair turret, were built in 1866. The tower is saddle-backed and rises in three stages, with clasping buttresses and enriched detailing, particularly around the belfry. To the north-east, a stair turret adjoins the porch; its lower stage is square while the upper stage is circular. The porch features a Romanesque-style doorway of four orders, decorated with zig-zag and rope moulding and attached shafts.

The aisles have battlements and 15th-century traceried square-headed windows. An external octagonal vice (spiral staircase) stands west of the projecting gabled south chapel, which has three offset buttresses. The chapel windows include two two-light ogee-surround windows with sexfoils in the heads, and the east window has three reticulated lights. A south lancet serves the chancel. A north doorway features three orders of moulding—a roll, zig-zag, and billet—with two attached shafts. Later 19th-century windows are found elsewhere.

Interior

Inside, the nave and chancel are continuous, distinguished only by changes in the 19th-century roof structure. The south arcade has five bays (the easternmost in the chancel), while the north has four (the westernmost serving the tower). The arches are broadly chamfered, set on square piers with undercut abaci. From the south aisle to the chapel, a double hollow-chamfered arch rests on octagonal responds with moulded caps, with one arch opening to the chancel and another to the nave.

The chancel fittings are all circa 1860 and include an altar, brass altar rail, triptych reredos, choir stalls, an organ, polychrome tiles, and wall paintings of the four Evangelists on the east wall. A painted black arcading decoration and chapel screen are also present. The south chapel contains an ogee-chamfered piscina with corbelled niches flanking the east window, their ogee heads crocketted. Two 19th-century crocketted and ogee wall recesses are also present. The north aisle has doorways to a rood stair, and a deeply moulded trefoil-headed piscina (re-sited) stands in the south aisle.

A 12th-century Bethersden marble font features arcading of five shallow arches on each face, set above five shafts with water-holding bases. The pulpit, from 1894, is octagonal and constructed of stone with heavy stiff-leaf ornament and open arcaded sides; attached shafts of various coloured stones enhance its decoration. Box pews remain in the church.

Stained glass includes works by Thomas Willement (chancel, 1852–1854; south aisle, 1851; south chapel, 1858–1859) and Clayton Bell (south chapel, 1865; nave, date unknown; south aisle, 1871, 1874, and 1885).

Monuments and Memorials

A wall plaque to Robert Streynsham (mid-1630s) stands on the chancel's south wall. It is of black and white marble with a Latin inscription and an architectural surround of Corinthian columns, cornice, and frieze, topped by a scrolled cartouche.

On the north wall stands a monument to Jacob Master, gentleman (died 1631), attributed to Edward Marshall. It depicts a shrouded, bearded old man resting on a coved and gadrooned sarcophagus with swags to left and right. A semi-circular arched plaque with a coffered soffit is supported by strapwork and putti. The plaque bears a Latin text, an angel head in shallow relief, and painted ribbons and symbols of death and burial achievement above.

In the south chapel, a wall plaque commemorates Arthur Whatman (died 1678). Made of black and white marble on a moulded base, it features heavily foliated scrolls and swags, a triple recessed scrolled surround with drapery and fruit, a cornice, and a raised frieze.