Church Of St Peter The Apostle

Church of St Peter The Apostle

This is a parish church in Zeal Monachorum with a 12th-century core, substantially developed in the 13th century and much rebuilt in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Major restorations were undertaken in 1850-3 and 1907-12, with the chancel roof restored in 1965.

The church is constructed of random local stone rubble in the nave, with mostly local mudstone including granite and volcanic trap stone in rougher courses elsewhere. The porch incorporates many larger blocks of red or purple coloured mudstone and grey granite. Granite dressings and details are both original and from restoration work, supplemented by Bathstone restoration detail. The roof is slate.

The plan comprises a nave and lower chancel on a slightly different axis, a north transept, south aisle, west tower, and south porch. The architectural styles are Decorated and Perpendicular.

The west tower is probably late 15th to early 16th century, though all its detail is 19th-century replacement granite, including most of the weatherings on the buttresses and the coping of the parapet. It is of two stages with low diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet. The tower was apparently once higher than its present height. It contains an internal stair turret. The belfry features twin lancet windows on each side, and the south side has a slit window to the ringing loft. On the west side is a 2-centred arch doorway containing a 19th-century door with distinctive wrought-iron strap hinges, and above it a 2-light window with Decorated-style tracery. A large iron openwork clockface on the south side was erected in 1912.

The south aisle is probably 13th century according to some original Decorated-style granite tracery exposed inside, though all present windows are 19th-century Bathstone replacements set in the original embrasures with granite sills, reveals, and hoodmoulds. Both gable ends include 3-light windows: the west one has Perpendicular-style tracery, the east one Decorated-style. The south front is 4 bays between diagonal buttresses. The porch, left of centre, is probably early 16th century and the south door blocks a window which retains its original Decorated tracery inside with some of the hoodmould visible outside. All windows are 2 lights; that to the left of the porch has Perpendicular-style tracery, whilst the two to the right have Decorated-style tracery and are separated by a buttress. There is a soffit-chamfered granite wall plate. The porch is gable-ended with a late 15th to early 16th-century 2-centred granite outer arch with moulded surround and hoodmould.

The south side of the chancel has a probably late 15th to early 16th-century granite priest's door, tiny with a 4-centred arch cut from a single slab. To its right is a 19th-century Bathstone trefoil-headed lancet. The east gable end has a large 19th-century Bathstone 3-light window with Decorated-style tracery and a moulded hood with carved medieval king and queen head labels. A 19th-century vestry against the north side contains a Bathstone 2-light window with Decorated-style tracery and moulded hood with scroll labels. The gable end of the north transept and the north side of the aisle both include a 19th-century Bathstone Decorated-style 2-light window.

Interior

The south doorway is an early 16th-century granite 2-centred arch with moulded surround and ramshead stops, containing a good 18th-century fielded panel door. Inside the door, a 13th-century window can be seen blocked, with some of its tracery exposed. The blind embrasure now contains a list of former rectors.

The nave has a much-restored open 15th-century barrel-vaulted roof. The chancel, transept, and aisle have ceiled barrel vaults of unknown date. All roofs probably have early 20th-century wall plates. A tall plain tower arch with simple imposts divides the nave from the tower, with no chancel arch. A 15th or early 16th-century granite arcade of 4 bays, with one overlapping the chancel, comprises moulded piers with caps to the shafts only (Pevsner's Type A). The windows of the south aisle have their original hollow-chamfered inner arches. The east window of the chancel is flanked by Bathstone half-engaged shafts with carved foliate caps and an internal moulded hood with the labels carved as a medieval king and queen's heads.

The floor, laid in 1913, is of plain tile with panels of encaustic tile in the chancel near the altar. Around 1965 the floor of the south chapel was paved.

Nearly all the fittings date to circa 1913, including the oak altar rail on twisted standards, deal stalls and benches, and the chancel screen and parclose with oak linenfold wainscoting and wrought-ironwork above. The oak drum pulpit is a First World War Memorial. The font, however, is Norman: a bucket font of purple basalt with a fillet around the rim, the lower half of which is carved with a zigzag pattern. It is encircled halfway down by a projecting broad cable. It has a restored late 17th to early 18th-century oak ogee cover surmounted by a plaster 'dove', which has broken off and lies on the nearby window shelf. The font was reinstated in 1853 after being found in the graveyard and set on a piece of limestone also discovered at that time, though in 1912 the base was changed. Near the font are some old pieces of oak: the remains of the village stocks and a couple of pieces of chip-carved oak board found during the restoration of the roof.

The mural memorials are of plain marble. One on the south wall is in memory of Mary Snell-Hill (died 1845) with a triangular top enriched with a band of guilloche. Another on the north wall is in memory of Joseph Arscot (died 1823) with a moulded cornice and drapery, apparently missing a triangular pediment.

The glass is probably the most interesting feature of the church. The east window of the chancel has good, though faded, glass by Hardman, dated 1851. The south window of the chancel is also mid-19th century and includes an interesting monochrome representation of the Virgin and Child designed by Francis Wilson Ollifant and made by Clayton and Bell. The east end of the aisle has attractive patterned glass by Drake, and most of the rest is good quality early 20th-century stained glass also by Drake.