Parish Church Of St Peter

The parish church of St Peter in Purse Caundle is a building of group value, with a west tower and chancel-arch dating from the 15th century and a north chapel from the early 16th century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1731, and in 1883 the nave and south porch were rebuilt, with windows from the former nave being incorporated into the chancel. Further restoration work was undertaken in 1896 to the chancel and in 1905 to the tower.

The church is constructed of squared rubble-stone walls with ashlar dressings, and has clay-tile roofs. The west tower is of three stages, separated by horizontal mouldings and topped with an embattled parapet. Diagonal buttresses rise to the lower stage, and the upper stages feature an angle pilaster that extends as a pinnacle with a crocketed finial. A rectangular stair-turret is located at the south-east corner. The west doorway has a chamfered four-centred head with a square label. The west window consists of two trefoil-headed lights with vertical tracery set within a pointed head, also with a label. A square-headed window is positioned in the west wall of the second stage. The bell-chamber has a partially restored window of two trefoil-headed lights.

The nave incorporates earlier materials. The north and south walls each have two three-light windows. The south doorway, reset in the late 14th century, has a chamfered two-centred head and continuous jambs with shaped stops. The chancel features a two-light east window with a pointed head and a 19th-century design, incorporating a stone inscription reading ‘GKM 1820’ in the gable head. The south wall has two 15th-century windows. The eastern window is of three pointed lights in a square head with a casement-moulded surround. The west window has two ogee-headed lights with blank shields in the central spandrels, set within a square head with casement moulding.

The north chapel has diagonal buttresses with set-offs at the eastern corners. The east wall contains a three-light transomed window with a four-centred head. This window features cinquefoil cusping under the transoms and cinquefoil ogee heads to the lights with panel tracery above, all set beneath a label with head stops. A similar window is present on the north wall. The south porch, rebuilt in 1883, incorporates a reset 15th-century archway with an ogee-moulded four-centred head and continuous jambs.

Inside the church, the 15th-century chancel-arch has moulded and panelled responds and soffit, consisting of two wide panels with trefoiled heads. The base mouldings of the responds have been cut back to create vertical surfaces. The roofs are of 19th-century construction. A 15th-century font features an octagonal stone bowl with a panel on each face, a bossed underside, a stem, and a base. Reset brasses are found in the chancel and north chapel, dating to the 16th century. The communion rails and communion table are from the 17th century. A black-letter Bible from around 1630 is located in the north chapel. The pulpit is hexagonal, with fielded panels and a sounding-board, and dates to the early 18th century. Monuments, floor-slabs, a canopied table-tomb (ascribed to William Long, 1524), and stone slabs and tablets commemorating the Hoskyns family (17th and 18th centuries) are also present. A hatchment displaying the arms of Hoskyns impaling Seymer, dated 1694, is also noted.