Parish Church Of St Peter

The parish church of St Peter is a complex building incorporating fabric from the 12th century onwards, situated on the west side of Front Street, Portesham. The core of the church comprises 12th-century remains in the nave, with substantial rebuilding in the 13th century, including the nave walls, west tower, and chancel. The chancel and nave were refenestrated in the 14th and 15th centuries respectively, while the 16th century saw the addition of north and south aisles and a south porch. Further alterations occurred in the 17th century, notably to the fenestration of the nave and tower doorway. The church is constructed of rubble stone with dressed stone details, and has slate roofing over the chancel and lead roofing over the nave and aisles.

The west tower is of three stages, with 13th-century angle buttresses to the lower part, and a 15th-century top stage. A newel staircase is located in the south-east corner. The 17th-century west doorway features a chamfered 4-centred head, with an elliptical-headed window above. Small single-light windows are on the second stage. The top stage has a window of two trefoiled lights with sunk spandrels. The tower is finished with weathered strings, a parapet string and gargoyles.

The nave retains lengths of 12th-century walling in the north wall, including an arcade springing from a round pier with a scalloped capital. The majority of the nave walls are from the 13th century, with a 17th-century two-light window at the west end and a 15th-century two-light window with cinquefoiled ogee lights. The south porch has a 16th-century 2-centred entrance arch. The north and south aisles, each of two bays, also date to the 16th century, with windows of three cinquefoiled lights. A 17th-century window in the north aisle’s west wall is partially blocked. The chancel is of the 13th century, with a doorway in the north wall featuring roll-moulded jambs and a continuous trefoiled head. A 14th-century two-light window with a quatrefoil is located to the west, and a late 15th-century three-light east window has vertical tracery. Two small, blocked round-headed windows from the 12th century are visible externally above the chancel arch.

Inside, the tower arch is pointed and of two chamfered orders, dating from the 13th century. The north and south arcades, around 1500, consist of two 4-centred arches from a rectangular responded central pier with mouldings and panelling. The chancel arch is pointed and dates from around 1500, with plain squints on either side. The font has a square tapered bowl with chamfered angles and a circular stem, both 13th-century. The pulpit is octagonal and panelled, dating from the 17th century but situated upon a 20th-century base. A timber screen of the early 16th century stands in three main bays, with a pair of central doors. Seventeen stone brackets, from the 12th and early 16th centuries, are also present. The south doorway is of double boarding with nail-studded battens, centrally hinged, and dates to the 16th century. There are eighteen monuments, mainly dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. A piscina is located in the south aisle, with a chamfered 2-centred head, and dates from the 13th century. An external table tomb, to William Weave (1670), stands in the south aisle, featuring panelled sides, carved ends with blank shields and scrollwork, and a renewed inscription.