Church Of St Peter And St Mary

Church of St Peter and St Mary

This church stands close to the manor house and farmland off the Fishbourne by-pass at Appeldram Lane in Chichester. The building has medieval origins in its chancel dating to the 13th century. The north aisle's east end (formerly a north transept) was designed by G Draper in 1821, while the remainder of the aisle walling, roofs and arcades date from 1847. A choir vestry, storeroom and lavatory block were added in 1973.

The chancel is plastered and colour-washed with exposed freestone quoins. The former north transept has a stuccoed north wall and pebbledashed east wall. The rest of the church is constructed of flint with red tiled roofs and stone slate eaves to the south aisle. A weatherboarded bell turret sits at the west end, and the 1973 addition is faced with snecked stone.

The plan comprises a chancel, three-bay north and south aisles, with the east end of the north aisle formerly a transept and partly screened off as a vestry. A large 1973 north extension replaces the original north porch, and a bell turret occupies the west end.

Externally, the chancel north and south walls each have two lancets. The east lancet on the south side appears wholly medieval while the others appear partly rebuilt. A three-light east window with reticulated tracery lights the chancel. The west end features are 19th century. The nave has low clasping buttresses, a chamfered west doorway, a pair of lancets above and a sexafoil in the gable. The south aisle has two-light windows with reticulated tracery of 1847 to the east and west, and three trefoil-headed lancets on the south side. The north aisle has a two-light plate-traceried west window and a two-light Decorated style east window. The weatherboarded bellcote has a pyramidal tiled roof.

Internally, a timber chancel arch rests on moulded stone corbels. The chancel has an uneven plastered vaulted roof, and medieval timbers may survive behind the plaster. The 1847 south arcade features double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers with stiff-leaf carved capitals. The north arcade, added later, also has double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers with moulded capitals. The nave has a canted plastered ceiling except for an open collar-rafter roof in the west bay supporting the bell turret. The west end of the north aisle has an open roof; the rest of the aisle is plastered. The south aisle has an open arch-braced roof, plastered behind the rafters.

Fittings include a 20th-century gabled timber reredos with blind tracery. The chancel east wall is panelled on either side with 19th-century commandments boards above. A polygonal timber pulpit on a timber stem, dated post-1945, is carved with panels of stiff-leaf foliage. A font dating to around 1847 has an octagonal stone bowl with carved decoration on an octagonal stem. The chancel contains two elaborately carved 17th-century benches with shaped ends and dividers carved with ramshorns. Nave benches dated 1887 are square-headed with curved shoulders. South aisle benches have a different design with concave shoulders. A 20th-century screen at the east end of the north aisle forms the vestry. Stained glass includes brightly coloured remains of simple design, probably from 1821, and a fragment probably of 17th-century Flemish origin. Several 19th-century brass wall plaques are also present.

A church guide includes a copy of an 1804 image showing the east window as square-headed. The building represents a medieval chancel, possibly retaining a surviving medieval roof, with the remainder thoroughly rebuilt in several 19th-century phases, none of outstanding character.