Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Great Haseley

A church of major importance, built in phases from around 1200 through to the 15th century, with a chancel restored in 1897 by Thomas Garner. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has plain-tile and copper roofs.

The church comprises a four-bay aisled nave with chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a chapel to the north of the chancel. The early-Decorated chancel features three 2-light traceried windows on each side set between deep buttresses, and an east window of 5 lights with a rose in the tracery, probably renewed. The steeply-pitched roof rises prominently above the nave and aisles. The north chapel is built in plain Perpendicular style with a 3-light east window. The south aisle has frequent buttresses, a 3-light Decorated east window, and two 3-light windows with uncusped tracery to the east of the porch. West of the porch and in the west wall are 3-light Perpendicular windows. The porch itself is low and plain, with a high-level oak-framed window across the top of the west wall containing 4 leaded lights.

The east end of the north aisle is late Perpendicular, probably a chantry, and contains a 3-light east window and in the north wall a 3-light window and a small doorway, both with Tudor arches. An ancient plank door survives here. To the west are a small 3-light window with mouchettes, a Decorated doorway with ancient plank door, and a further 2-light Decorated window with reticulated tracery similar to that in the west wall. The 15th-century square-headed clerestorey windows each contain two cinquefoiled lights. The 3-stage 15th-century tower has large diagonal buttresses, a crenellated parapet, 2-light traceried belfry openings, and a deeply recessed 3-light west window. An elaborate re-set early 13th-century doorway in the tower has an arch of 3 richly-moulded orders and dogtooth ornament on shafts with stiff-leaf capitals.

Interior

The chancel is complete and exceptionally fine, featuring a carved stone vine cornice and moulded rere arches and hoods to the windows. An elaborate group of piscina, triple-sedilia and tomb recess, all richly cusped and separated by tall panelled pinnacles, survives in fine condition. The floor is of coral and grey marble. The Transitional chancel arch springs from corbels. The east bay of the nave is Perpendicular, but the remainder is Transitional with embryo stiff-leaf capitals on cylindrical piers. A 15th-century oak roof of 7 bays with curved bracing to the tie beams spans the nave.

The south aisle contains three cinquefoiled tomb recesses with pierced cusping, a piscina with nodding ogee canopy, and a canopied image niche to the south of the altar. A sizeable collection of 14th-century floor tiles of many patterns is set into the walls at the west end. The north-east chantry contains a Tudor-arched tomb recess. The south porch protects the fine 13th-century doorway with 2 orders of roll moulding and dogtooth ornament, and an ancient plank door with simple early 13th-century crescent hinges. The porch itself has an old 5-sided coupled-rafter roof. Stained glass of the 19th and early 20th centuries appears in the south aisle and chancel.

Fittings and Monuments

Fittings include a Jacobean octagonal pulpit with baluster legs, 2 late-medieval chests, and a plain stone tub font. Monuments are numerous and of considerable quality. Brasses are dated 1444, 1495, and 1581, with various fragments also present. Two medieval stone coffins survive, along with a 13th-century tomb slab with a foliated cross. Two 13th-century effigies of knights are preserved, one mutilated and the other well-preserved with sword and crossed legs. A large early 16th-century table tomb in the north-east chantry, formerly in the chancel, has panelled sides, heraldry, and a black marble top, and is said to commemorate Sir William Barrendyne.

Wall monuments include an elaborate Baroque cartouche to Revd. John Whistler (died 1720) and various plainer 18th-century tablets. The north chapel contains a large white marble Baroque monument to George Blackall (died 1709), featuring a bewigged bust under gilt-edged draperies framed by Ionic columns supporting an open and broken segmental pediment containing a heraldic cartouche flanked by trumpeting cherubs. The monument is signed "I. Piddington", identifying the sculptor as John Piddington of Oxford.