Church Of St Katherine And St Peter

Church of St Katherine and St Peter

This is an Anglican parish church of the 14th and 15th centuries, substantially restored in 1857–1858 by the architects Field and Hinton. The building is constructed of random sarsen stone with limestone dressings; the tower is of limestone ashlar. Stone slate roofs cover the structure throughout.

The church comprises a nave with a south porch, a north transeptal chapel, a north aisle, a chancel, and a west tower. The gabled porch is of the 14th century and features double hollow-chamfer mouldings. It opens to a 15th-century inner door, also with double hollow-chamfers separated by a round casement. A north door giving access to the aisle has an ogee moulding with fleurons set in a wide casement. The nave windows are of three and four lights, square-headed, with the latter having ogee cinquefoiled lights. The aisle contains two-light 15th-century windows. The north window of the transept is a fine 14th-century reticulated three-light window, while the chancel displays a full complement of 14th-century two-light curvilinear windows with mouchettes. The east window is a 19th-century reticulated copy. The four-stage west tower has angle buttresses and a north-east staircase rising above the crenellated and pinnacled parapet. The west door is flanked by a three-light window above and two-light bell openings. A numbered mass dial is positioned on the south-east quoin of the chancel.

Inside, the nave features a 14th-century arcade of three bays with mouldings continuous through to the bases. An elegant tall tower arch dominates the space. The roof dates to 1857 and spans three bays. The arch from aisle to transept is elaborated on the transept side, as is the east bay of the arcade. The transept has an arch-braced side roof and a trefoiled piscina. The church was possibly the family chapel of the Despensers. The chancel arch is moulded as an arcade but raised on corbels with elongated shafts that rest on lower corbels supported by male and queenly heads. The chancel is well lit with wide rear-arches to its windows and contains a trefoiled piscina with credence shelf and a priest's door on the south side. The chancel roof is of the 19th century.

The font, positioned under the tower, is an early 13th-century drum decorated with stiff-leaf carving and a spurred round base. A 17th-century oak pulpit features fielded panelling and a frieze, restored in the 19th century; a similar readers desk stands nearby. The sanctuary rail is 17th-century arcaded work on turned columns with a strapwork frieze, said to derive from former pews. All pews at the rear of the church are 17th-century low boxes. A 17th-century table in the transept and a chair with monoxylic ends comprise additional movable furniture.

Three 18th-century wall monuments stand on the north wall of the transept. They are of white marble with raised central panels, cornices, and broken ogee pediments topped with standing angels and central arms, with purple marble gadrooned bases and carved aprons. One monument commemorates Mary Baskerville of Richardston, died 1724, and bears a lengthy eulogy. Another is an aedicule with segmental pediment and death's head with putto below, dedicated to Margaret Baskerville, died 1696, on a grey panel. A handsome 14th-century wall tomb on the north wall features ogee tracery below an arch with stands for figures (possibly a crucifix), surmounted by a nodding ogee within a moulded arch. Within and on the floor lies a charming limestone grave slab of the late 13th century showing a man and woman holding hands in low relief beneath a trefoiled canopy. The west wall displays an unidentified painted heraldic crest.

In the chancel are three white marble tablets. One, pilastered on grey with an urn above and arms below, commemorates Elizabeth Tuckey, died 1809. Another, of white marble on slate, records Horatio Nelson Budd, midshipman, died 1843, by Legg of Purton. A third, similar in style, is dedicated to John Tuckey Budd, died 1831, by Franklin of Purton. The aisle contains a 19th-century Kindred and Affinity board, and two hatchments are displayed in the roof of the transept.

Some 14th- and 15th-century glass fragments survive in the head of the north-west window of the chancel. The east window is of 1926.