Church of St Peter and St Paul and lych gate

Church of St Peter and St Paul and lych gate

An Anglican parish church, medieval in origin from the 12th century or earlier, with substantial additions from the 14th and 16th centuries. The building was partly rebuilt in the mid-19th century, with various restorations carried out between 1847 and 1860.

The church is constructed of random limestone rubble with Bath stone dressings. The roofs are pitched and varied, covered with plain tiles and Welsh slate, with ceramic ridge cresting and coped verges.

The plan comprises a nave and aisles, a chancel with side chapels, a west tower, vestry and south porch, oriented west to east.

The south porch is a gabled structure from the 19th century, featuring a pointed doorway with hoodmould and a group of cusped lancets to the sides, with coped verges. The south aisle has cusped lancets and a plain blocking course with string course and coping. The clerestory contains three chamfered lancets. The south chapel has a chamfered pointed priest's doorway, a small lancet, and a two-light geometric-style window, with diagonal buttresses to the east.

The chancel displays two two-light geometric-style windows to the south side, a large three-light geometric-style window to the east end, and three two-light geometric-style windows to the north. The Bath Chapel has a three-light geometric-style window to its east elevation and three two-light windows to the north side.

The three-bay north aisle has a blocking course, two two-light 16th-century cusped mullioned windows and one three-light window with arched lights and keystones, all with square hoodmoulds. The north wall of the clerestory contains three lancets.

A three-sided stair turret has a pointed doorway at ground floor level, three loopholes, and a pointed stone-tiled roof.

The three-stage west tower has angle buttresses and a battered plinth. It features a large three-light transomed Perpendicular west window, chamfered lancets to the second stage, two-light louvred Perpendicular windows to the bell stage, and a string course beneath the battlemented parapet.

Internally, the porch contains a pointed inner doorway with hoodmould carved with heads and a braced collar-rafter roof. The nave has a six-bay wagon roof. The three-bay north arcade comprises plain chamfered semi-circular arches with plain abaci on square chamfered piers. The five-bay south arcade has double-chamfered pointed arches. The aisles have moulded tie-beam roofs.

The tower arch is 14th-century, with stylised leaf capitals supporting a double chamfered arch, and a pointed doorway leads to the stairs. The chancel arch is 19th-century, pointed, with a foliated capital.

The chancel contains polychrome encaustic floor tiles by Minton, Hollins & Co., and stamped ceramic wall decoration, with a wagon roof.

The Bath Chapel is entered from the north aisle through a double-chamfered arch and contains a 1921 neo-Jacobean-style tromp d'oeil screen to Ralph Brocklebank (died 1921), designed by F C Eden and made by Frederick Tibbenham of Ipswich. Two pointed arches on compound piers lead into the chancel. The chapel has a polychrome tiled floor and wall tiles decorated with the Bath arms. An Art Nouveau bronze and alabaster memorial font or stoup to Lord John Thynne (died 1887) by Alfred Gilbert was formerly in the tower. The chest tomb of John Ludlow (died 1519), carrying Ludlow heraldic arms, now serves as the chapel altar. It was brought here, along with other monuments, from the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Hill Deverill when that church closed in the late 20th century.

The nave contains a 13th-century cylindrical font with enriched scallops to the underside and a 17th-century cover, together with a baroque-style wooden pulpit. The chancel altar, found in the churchyard in 1858, is incised with crosses.

A wooden memorial reredos of 1917-18, carved with figures of saints in a Jacobean Revival frame, was designed by C E Ponting and carved by Herbert Read of Exeter. Additional screens include one to the south chapel and vestry of 1922, also by Eden; an 18th-century-style screen with Ionic columns and segmental pediment, formerly at the tower and now adjacent to the Bath Chapel screen; and a Jacobean screen of approximately 1700 at the west end of the south aisle, with composite pilasters, arched panels and cartouches, brought here from Hatfield Church in Hertfordshire in 1924.

The altar rails, pews and choir stalls are mid-19th century. The organ, possibly brought from elsewhere, has a case by Sweetland of Bath, with relief Royal Arms over the south door.

A war memorial in the nave, dated 1919, was designed by Eden and painted by A Marcus.

The church contains varied stained glass, including an east window dated 1931 by C E Kempe & Co. Ltd., with other windows by Kempe in the north aisle and clerestory. A south aisle window of 1924 and a north aisle window of 1926 were designed by Eden.

Memorials in the Bath Chapel, some from the earlier church, include an 18th-century marble memorial to Sir John Thynne (died 1580); 17th-century wooden memorials to the Coker family; and marbles to Elizabeth, Marchioness of Bath (died 1825) by Francis Chantrey, and to the 2nd Marquess of Bath (died 1837).

At the south-eastern entrance to the churchyard stands a lych gate, dated 1903 and given by the Reverend Canon W D Morrice, a former vicar, in memory of his children. It has timber-framed sides resting on stone pads and a pair of timber gates. The pitched roof is clad in shingles and is surmounted by a cross.