Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Steeple Aston

This is a substantial parish church with origins in the 13th century, substantially developed in the 14th and 15th centuries, and later significantly altered. The chancel was rebuilt in 1684, the church was restored and the north aisle partly rebuilt around 1842 by John Plowman, restored again in 1873 by Charles Buckeridge, and a vestry was added in 1909.

The building is constructed of limestone and coursed marlstone rubble with limestone-ashlar dressings, beneath Welsh-slate and sheet-metal roofs. It comprises a chancel, north-east chapel, nave, north and south aisles, a west tower, porch, and north-east vestry.

The 17th-century chancel features moulded strings below the windows and a crenellated parapet. On the south side are three Tudor-arched two-light windows with cusping below the transoms and a small priest's door with a round-arched roll-moulded surround. The three-light east window is similar but has two rows of transoms. The parallel north chapel has a similar parapet and retains a three-light 14th-century east window with reticulated tracery, though this is now obscured on the north by a two-storey 20th-century marlstone vestry.

The marlstone south aisle has a deep chamfered plinth and crenellated limestone parapet, with a restored three-light south window featuring geometrical tracery; the west window is 19th-century in 15th-century style. The south parapet breaks around a tall porch and incorporates fine gargoyles, including a woman with pitchers. The porch has an ashlar front with a canopied niche containing a 19th-century figure of St Peter. A 14th-century south door has continuous mouldings.

The north aisle has a moulded parapet and frequent buttresses, with Tudor-arched windows of three, two and single lights featuring similar drop tracery, and a two-light 19th-century window to the west.

The large three-stage rubble tower has diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet. The deeply-splayed west doorway combines a wave moulding and two wide casement mouldings, with a two-light window with Y tracery above it. The top stage has two-light traceried bell-chamber openings. The outer buttresses contain blank shields in cusped rectangular panels.

Interior

The chancel features a 19th-century Perpendicular-style roof rising from large well-carved heads which may date to 1684, and a large continuously-moulded 14th-century arch leading to the north chapel. The north chapel retains an unusual 14th-century piscina with a traceried triangular head.

The 13th-century chancel arch has clustered responds with moulded capitals. The four-bay arcades are of similar date but with circular columns and, to the east, detached shafts as responds. The arches are all of two chamfered orders, except the tower arch which is of three orders dying into plain masonry responds, which may be later.

The south aisle has an ogee-headed piscina and good 14th- and 15th-century head corbels. The north aisle has earlier corbels, possibly re-used, and in the splay of a window is a moulded octagonal pedestal for a statue. The 19th-century aisle roofs are in Perpendicular style with moulded timbers; the nave has a panelled five-canted roof.

Fittings include a font, possibly 12th-century, with vigorous chevron decoration; a large number of carved traceried bench ends, some of which are medieval; and a fine Arts and Crafts oak lectern inlaid with various woods and mother-of-pearl. A 15th-century chancel screen has two tiers of open traceried panels and original ferramenta. The north chapel has late 17th-century communion rails with heavy turned balusters. A fine brass chandelier, probably 18th-century, hangs in the chancel.

Stained glass of around 1900 by C.E. Kempe is present in the chancel, chapel, and the east window of the south aisle, with a few 15th-century quarries in the north aisle.

Monuments include a brass of 1522; a wall tablet to Daniel Greenwood (died 1673); and early 18th-century wall monuments to the Marten family, with a cartouche of arms, and to Richard Duckworth, rector, with a broken segmental pediment enclosing a garlanded urn with flanking consoles. The north chapel contains a notable monument of around 1730 by Scheemakers to Sir Francis and Lady Page, executed in grey marble with two fine reclining effigies below an immense Baroque architectural composition.