Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

This is an Anglican parish church, dedicated in 1317 and predominantly 14th and 15th century in date. It was restored and substantially altered in the mid-19th century, when the chancel was shortened. The building is constructed of rubble brought to courses with freestone dressings, and has a slate roof with coped verges. It comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, chancel, and a north organ chamber added in 1953.

The tower is Perpendicular in style and has three stages. It features weathered diagonal buttresses and a north-east polygonal stair turret. The first stage contains a low four-centred arch west door beneath a drip mould with decorated stops and blank shields in the spandrels, and a four-light pointed west window. The second stage has one blank pointed window on each side. At the third stage, each side carries three similar two-light windows: the outer ones are blank and the central window is partially open and louvred to the bell chamber. Halfway up this stage, the buttresses fade into clasping pilasters which rise through a cornice to crocketed finials above a quatrefoil pierced parapet. The stair turret rises above this with panels and a spirelet.

The nave has three windows to the south; the tracery of the westernmost is plain, heavy, and not cusped. To the north, the westernmost window is similar, followed by a blocked four-centred door with drip. Evidence remains of a two-bay blocked arcade, the eastern bay of which contains a small two-light window. Beyond this stands a plain, square rood stair turret with a single slit light. The south porch is gabled and has a moulded pointed arch with an empty niche above.

The chancel is of mixed Perpendicular and Decorated style. The west bay contains a three-light Perpendicular window beneath a drip with one grotesque stop. The remainder is Decorated. To the south are two two-light windows beneath a narrow drip joined at the impost; the western window has a further two lights below a transom and a low side light. Between these windows stands a priest's door with a prettily cusped head. A three-light east window occupies the eastern wall. To the north are two two-light windows, much restored, with evidence of a blocked doorway, possibly to a former sacristy.

Internally, the tower arch is very thick and bears only one wave moulding below the impost, with moulding above and a tierceron vault. A 20th-century screen is mounted here. Nave windows have complete rear-arches, the south-west window has double moulding, and all have very deep hollows. The two-bay blocked arcade at the north-east contains shafts and hollows. The rood stair doors remain intact. The roof is a crude moulded wagon type. The south porch has a moulded inner door above which is a narrow niche with a vaulted canopy. Mounted in the east wall is a substantial fragment of medieval statuary—a panel depicting the Madonna and two kneeling supplicants all beneath a cusped ogee arch.

The chancel arch is heavily moulded with a stone screen base. All the Decorated windows have cinquefoiled rear-arches. An ogee cusped and sub-cusped canopy surmounts the priest's door, with the same motif repeated over a tomb recess in the south of the sanctuary. A small cusped aumbry is positioned to the north. The roof is a plain wagon type.

The stained glass in the east window dates to 1964; the remainder is Victorian memorial glass.

Among the fittings is a 12th-century tub font on a later pedestal. A 15th-century pulpit, altered, stands on a pedestal with a frieze and a two-light panel per side between crocketed finials, above a frieze and cornice. Mounted in the arcade are 14th-century encaustic floor tiles from the former chancel and fragments of early statuary.

Tablets include a slate monument with crown and apron in the south nave, and marble tablets with allegorical figures. A marble tablet to Mary Tutton, dated 1769, was created by S. Haynes of Bristol. A marble tablet on a slate ground with a draped urn to Samuel Norman, dated 1805, was created by H. Wood of Bristol.