Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

An Anglican parish church of major importance, strategically positioned within the Stourhead landscape and closely associated with the Hoare family from the 18th century onwards.

The church dates primarily from the early 14th century, with significant 15th-century work, alterations in the 1720s and early 19th century, a new south aisle added in 1848, and comprehensive restoration in 1877. It is constructed of dressed limestone with a tiled chancel roof and a lead nave roof.

The building comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with a south organ chamber, a north chapel, and a porch. The square, flat-roofed north porch has a Tudor-arched doorway with 20th-century double doors and a plain parapet. The north aisle displays a 4-light Perpendicular window to the right of the porch and three 4-light windows to the left, with a parapet featuring pierced triangles. The clerestory has four late 14th-century 3-light windows beneath a parapet with cusped lozenges. The east end of the north aisle contains a 4-light Perpendicular window. The chancel's east window was blocked in 1937; its south window is late 14th-century with a coped verge and cross finial. The 1877 vestry and organ chamber has a polygonal east end, a 19th-century door, and cusped lancets. An early 19th-century family pew features a 4-light window and coped verge, though its finial is missing. The 1848 south aisle has a 4-light window and parapet matching the north aisle, with a clerestory of four 3-light Perpendicular windows. The west window of the south aisle is reset 15th-century work. The north aisle contains a 4-light Perpendicular window.

The three-stage tower features diagonal buttresses that rise to clasping buttresses, a moulded plinth, and a blocked west doorway with a 19th-century square-headed window above. A pointed south doorway opens at ground level. The middle stage displays an 1848 gilded clockface. The bellstage has 2-light Perpendicular windows with pierced wooden louvres, and the parapet is battlemented with gargoyles.

Interior

The porch contains a 19th-century double-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with double doors, and fragments of reset 15th-century mouldings appear in the side walls. The nave features a 19th-century four-bay ribbed ceiling supported on gilded angel corbels. The early 14th-century north arcade comprises 3½ bays with cylindrical columns and double-chamfered pointed arches; the second column from the east has a triple-chamfered arch. The 19th-century south arcade follows the same style as the north. The tower arch is continuously double-chamfered and carries a 19th-century screen. Steps lead up to an exterior south door; a blocked west door retains its stoup on the north side.

The chancel arch is double-chamfered and bears evidence of a former rood loft, including a narrow chamfered doorway positioned high on the south side. An 1877 stone pulpit and dwarf wall cross the arch. A 19th-century three-bay arch-braced collar roof features cusped windbracing. The 1877 organ chamber lies to the right, accessed through a moulded archway with a 19th-century ogee doorway; an aumbry is positioned to the left. A 1937 altar and statue of Christ occupy a niche within the blocked east window.

The north chapel contains a substantial monument with canopied niches and Perpendicular blind tracery, displaying recumbent effigies of the Fifth Lord Stourton (died 1536) and his wife. A 12th-century cylindrical stone font from Monkton Deverill stands here, along with various 17th- and 18th-century floor tablets commemorating members of the Stourton family. The north window contains some late 15th-century stained glass.

Furnishings and Monuments

The 1877 pews remain in place. A Hoare family pew on the south side of the nave retains 1840s seating, a panelled dado, and a fireplace on its south wall. 20th-century brasses and plaques to the Hoare family are displayed nearby. Monuments to the Hoare family, reset in the south aisle during the 19th century, include a fine marble monument against the south wall to Henry Hoare (died 1785), creator of Stourhead Gardens, signed by C. Harris and dated 1789. Another on the east wall commemorates Henry Hoare (died 1724), featuring a broken pediment, Corinthian columns, and flanking urns. A white marble monument to Hester Hoare (died 1785) bears an inscription recording its erection by Richard Colt Hoare, who died in 1838.

The nave walls are largely covered with 19th-century classical marble tablets honouring members of the Hoare family and others. A gilded plaque on the north aisle records a restoration undertaken in 1722–23 by Nathaniel Ireson, mason of Stourhead House, and John Butcher, churchwardens. A recumbent effigy of a woman, probably Lady Stourton (died circa 1400), occupies the north aisle; a cartouche above commemorates Mary Ireson, wife of Nathaniel, who died in 1723.

The church represents an important element in the Stourhead landscape and remains intimately connected with its creators, the Hoare family, from the 18th century onwards.