Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter, Stoke Fleming

This is a parish church of probable 13th-century origin, remodelled and enlarged in the early 14th century, altered in the 15th century, and restored in 1871–2 by J. P. St. Aubyn. The church may have pre-Conquest foundations, as it was formerly dedicated to St. Petrock. William de Maccombe is recorded as rector in 1272.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, short north and south transepts, four-bay north and south aisles, a north porch, a west tower, and a vestry and organ chamber on the north side of the chancel. It is roughcast rendered overall except for the tower, which is built of local slate rubble with granite and red sandstone dressings. The roofs are slate, with the nave roof carried down over the aisles and gabled ends throughout; the chancel and transept roofs are lower. All are finished with late 19th-century crested ridge tiles.

The arcade piers appear to be 13th-century work: massive, squat blocks of grey limestone resembling Purbeck marble, set square with large round shafts on the chamfered corners and two fillets between them. The bases and capitals are moulded. The double-chamfered two-centred arches above them are of pink sandstone. The fifth east bay at the transept crossing has slender moulded piers with shafts at each corner and two fillets with a recessed shaft between; the capitals are finely carved Beerstone with foliage, and the two-centred arches above are moulded Beerstone. The north east respond capital is carved with the arms of the Careys. The chancel arch appears to have been rebuilt with an asymmetrical two-centred arch. The tall stone rubble two-centred tower arch has chamfered imposts.

The church was probably reconstructed around 1312 when the aisles were added to the earlier 13th-century cruciform church, partly absorbing the short transepts. The transept crossing arches and piers appear to be 15th-century rebuilding. The tower is probably 13th-century in origin, comprising three stages with weathered stringcourses, tapering slightly and having set-back buttresses with set-offs and a moulded embattled parapet. A polygonal star turret rises on the north side with battlements above the main tower. Small red sandstone window slits light the stair turret. A four-centred arch doorway at the base has a 19th-century door; a four-centred arch west window of granite lacks cusping and carries a hoodmould; the granite two-centred arch west doorway has a single roll-moulding and a label and is now blocked. The bell-openings on all sides except the south are two-lights with slate louvres. The north porch was probably built in the 17th century and has a chamfered two-centred arch of dressed slate; the inner doorway is 14th-century with a moulded two-centred arch and hoodmould; the door is 19th-century and the porch has a 19th-century common rafter roof.

All windows were replaced in 1971 in Bathstone, with exceptions: those in the tower; a two-light window with cusped heads on the east side of the south aisle (its mullion has been removed); and a four-centred arch two-light window dated 1810 on the south side of the chancel. The 1871 windows are all Gothic: the north side and east windows have three lights with geometric tracery; the transepts have three-light Perpendicular style windows; the south aisle windows have straight heads and ogee cusped lights. The priest's doorway on the south side of the chancel is blocked.

Interior walls are plastered throughout except the west tower, which retains exposed stone rubble. The tiled floors date to around 1871–2. The four-bay arcades have the moulded bases and capitals described above. The chancel contains remains of a piscina and what may be an aumbry. All roofs were replaced by St. Aubyn in 1871–2: the nave is arch-braced on corbels with wind-braces; the transepts are also arch-braced with wind bracing; the aisles have common rafter roofs with curved bracing; the chancel roof is the most elaborate, being arch-braced with trefoils between the queen struts and two tiers of wind bracing.

All benches in the nave, aisles and chair stalls date to 1871–2 and replaced box-pews and galleries at the west end and in the south aisle. The carved polygonal pulpit of 1891 is by Miss Violet Pinwill. The 1916 lectern is a life-size carved wooden figure of an angel; the 1984 lectern by Nigel Watson is a seagull on a rock. A Gothic altar rail and altar of 1911 features three carved panels on the front with palm tree columns between. An early 20th-century Gothic style marble reredos with mosaic panels and a marble-faced east wall of the sanctuary, inscribed with the Commandments, complete the chancel furnishings.

The font is Norman, of pink sandstone with a plain round bowl with roll moulding below and a circular stem with moulded base; below is a late base with spired corners set on a late 19th-century Devon limestone plinth. The lead lining bears marks for hinge and bolt. The 1861 organ by Bryceson Brothers of London was rebuilt in 1887; its pipes were painted with flowers in 1874. A clock in the north aisle dates to around the early 19th century.

The church contains a 13th-century recumbent effigy under the tower arch, formerly in the chancel, probably representing Eleanor Mohun, wife of Sir John Carew, wearing late 13th-century costume. A brass to John Carp and a lady (probably his granddaughter), dated 1361, is said to be the oldest dated brass in the West Country. A brass to Elias Newcomen, 1614, was reset under the south side of the chancel arch. The chancel holds a memorial to George Goodridge, 1781, and numerous 19th-century memorials to local families, some signed by their masons.

Most window tracery was replaced in 1871–2. The late 19th-century east window is followed by stained glass of: the south east chancel window (1877) to Alice, wife of E. St. Aubyn, rector; the south west chancel window (1866); the south transept window (circa 1860); the north transept window signed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake of London (1871); a north aisle window to George Parker Bidder (1882), an infant prodigy, engineer, mathematician and president of the Devonshire Association, with another of 1901; south aisle windows of 1888 signed by Cox, Sons and Buckley, London, another of 1888, and an early 20th-century example. The remaining north and south aisle windows date to around 1871, and the west tower window is early 20th-century. The west tower contains six bells cast in 1777 and a clock of 1878.