Church of St Paul

Church of St Paul

Church, built in 1853 by architects Manners and Gill. The aisles and nave were rebuilt in 1867 by C.F. Hansom.

The building is constructed of Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, and has an exterior stack and slate roof with decorative ridge tiles and two cast-iron vents.

The church has an aisled nave with west and southwest porches, a north side tower, and an attached northwest house. Originally built as a hall church with aisles matching the height of the nave, the nave was raised by Hansom. The original Decorated Gothic Revival-style tracery was largely replaced by Geometrical tracery in the two-centred arched openings.

The east end features a tall nave gable and flanking aisle gables with angle buttresses. Two two-light windows sit beneath a central round window to the nave, with three-light aisle windows below. A deep porch has an ashlar gable with steps leading to a doorway with three orders, granite columns with foliate capitals, and a carved scene of St Peter teaching in the tympanum. Sliding doors open into the reveals, with a double inner door beyond. Flanking side porches have pierced parapets and two side windows each. The north aisle displays seven bays of two-light windows separated by buttresses, mirrored on the south side. The southwest porch has an ashlar gable with paired, arched doorways on paired granite columns (the right-hand one blocked) set in a two-centred arched recess, featuring a quatrefoil in the tympanum and a finial.

The three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses and a north doorway with double doors and strap hinges under a hood with head stops. A southwest octagonal stair turret rises to the first stage. A small one-light window appears above with a string course. The second stage has a cinquefoil window below a weathered band. Two-light belfry windows with Decorated tracery and louvred panels light the top. A corbel table supports an ashlar broached spire with three diminishing stages of spirelights.

A two-storey, four-window range house occupies the northwest corner with a double-pile roof and three cross gables with roll-top coping (the right-hand ones paired). The gables contain three-light ground-floor windows with trefoil heads and labels, and two-light first-floor two-centred arched windows with central round lights. The left-hand gable has a three-light ground-floor window with flat, cuspate head and a three-light first-floor window with shallow arch and trefoil above. A plain two-light window sits between the left and middle gables, and a blocked left-hand door with shouldered lintel is visible. An external stack stands to the west gable. The west end of the nave has a three-light nave window and two-light aisle windows.

Interior features include a two-bay chancel with timber reredos in three sections with painted panels and flanking pointed-arched arcades. A tall chancel arch with triple attached shafts opens to the five-bay nave. The nave has round sandstone shafts on square piers with water leaf and foliate capitals and moulded arches. Carved corbels support vault shafts to a timber roof with arched trusses pierced by trefoils and two tiers of windbraces. Timber aisle roofs feature pointed-arched trusses. A west gallery is present.

Fittings include an octagonal pulpit with marble shafts and an octagonal stone font.

The original building was an unusual example of a hall church, possibly inspired by the Cathedral, with a spire modelled on Pugin's St Peter's, Marlow.