Church Of St Peter And St Paul

This Anglican parish church stands as one of the most dynamic examples of Perpendicular architecture in the Cotswolds. The building has 12th-century origins and 14th-century elements, but was substantially rebuilt in the Perpendicular style during the 15th century, largely funded by the wool merchant John Fortey. James Brooks restored the church between 1877 and 1884, with further restoration work in 1961.

Plan and Materials

The church comprises a chancel with chapels on the north and south sides, with a vestry attached to the north side of the chancel. The nave has north and south aisles, with a large projecting south porch positioned towards the west end of the south aisle. A tower stands at the west end. The building is constructed of ashlar with stone slate and lead roofing.

Chancel

The basic structure of the chancel dates from around 1350. It features diagonal buttresses and a moulded plinth. The east window has five lights with Perpendicular tracery, with an image niche positioned above. Two four-light windows with Perpendicular tracery sit within casement-moulded Tudor-arched surrounds. On the north side, a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery sits within a pointed surround. The 19th-century flat-roofed vestry on the north side has a three-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights within a rectangular casement-moulded surround on its west wall, and a pointed two-light window within a casement-moulded surround on the north wall.

Clerestory and Nave

John Fortey built the nave clerestory between approximately 1445 and 1455. Five large Tudor-arched lights with Perpendicular tracery run along each side, with a nine-light window at the east gable. Battlemented parapets with crocketed finials crown the structure, and an image niche pinnacle stands at the centre of the east gable end.

North Aisle

The north aisle was rebuilt around 1450. It has a moulded plinth with diagonal buttresses at the corners and buttresses with offsets between the windows. Four four-light windows feature cinquefoil-headed lights with Perpendicular tracery. The windows have hoods with carved human and beast head stops. A studded double north door with fillets sits within a heavily moulded Tudor-arched surround with a hollow-moulded hood terminating in stops formed as kings' heads. Three-light windows occupy the east and west ends of the aisle, with the west window displaying simple Perpendicular tracery. A battlemented parapet with grotesques projecting from the string course completes the exterior.

Tower

Dating from around 1400, the tower rises in four diminishing stages with diagonal buttresses extending to parapet level. The buttresses contain image niches with crocketed canopies. A 20th-century double door with studded fillets is set back within a deep moulded surround at the west end. Ornamental buttresses decorated with heraldic shields and engaged crocketed pinnacles flank the entrance, with blind tracery above the door. The second and third stages have single lights with trefoil-headed and cinquefoil-headed openings under crocketed canopies. A wrought-iron clock is mounted on the south side of the third stage. Four ogee-curved crocketed surrounds frame openings rising to the fourth stage; the central openings contain stone louvres, while flanking blind openings have image brackets. Projecting grotesques appear between the openings. Hollow-moulded strings decorated with grotesque heads separate the stages. The tower is crowned by panelled and pierced battlements, with a string below featuring projecting gargoyles and carved heads.

South Aisle and Porch

Built between 1460 and 1480, the south aisle was constructed at the same time as the porch. The west end of the south aisle overlaps the tower. The bay left of the south porch has a diagonal buttress with a square crocketed pinnacle. A pointed five-light window with Perpendicular tracery and a hood with head stops occupies the west end. The south-facing bay features a four-light window with a transom and Perpendicular tracery displaying finely carved cusping and small quatrefoils, topped by a hood with head stops. Two bays to the right of the porch have windows matching those left of the porch. An eroded 17th to early 18th-century monument stands to the right of the porch. Similar Perpendicular windows without transoms light the Bicknell or Lady Chapel to the right. The parapet is adorned with crocketed pinnacles.

The projecting two-storey porch has diagonal buttresses with offsets. Image niches with crocketed canopies are set within the buttresses. A stair turret capped by an elegant crocketed fleche rises at the north-west corner. Double cast iron gates sit within a casement-moulded pointed surround topped by a crocketed ogee-curved hood with stops carved as a man's and a woman's head. A seated statue of Our Lady under a projecting cusped canopy occupies the position above the entrance. Two cinquefoil-headed panels with pointed crocketed hoods and engaged crocketed pinnacles flank the statue. The panels immediately adjacent to the statue are lit by single lights with wooden slats; the outer panels formerly served as image niches. A further seated figure under a projecting elaborate crocketed canopy occupies the centre position above. The parapet has a hollow-moulded string decorated with finely carved bosses and angels. A crocketed bell turret stands at the apex of the gable, with crocketed pinnacles completing the composition. The side returns feature single lights with trefoil-headed and cinquefoil-headed openings.

Porch Interior

The porch interior contains two bays of vaulting rising from engaged columns with carved capitals, incorporating tiercerons and sculptured bosses with blind tracery. Panelled walls feature image brackets supported by sculptured corbels. Stone seats run alongside the walls. The flag floor includes some 18th-century ledges. A double 20th-century door with blind tracery and decorative wrought-iron decoration in the form of roses bearing the initials 'E R' (mid-20th century) sits within a moulded surround with a hood featuring large head stops. An image niche with canopy is positioned above.

The upper room of the porch contains a fireplace with a bread oven at the back and a projecting stone lintel supported on flat-chamfered stone corbels. Stone candle brackets are positioned either side. Graffiti and scratched rosettes appear around the walls. An early studded plank door sits within a four-centred arched surround.

Church Interior: Arcade and Structural Features

The five-bay nave arcade features remarkable concave-sided octagonal piers and capitals that rise to form four-centred arches. The name 'HENRIE WINCHOMBE' is incised on the easternmost pier on the south side, possibly identifying the master mason. Almost identical arcades exist at Chipping Campden, with similar examples at Winchcombe. The tall tower arch comprises three orders, the inner two of which have engaged columns with moulded capitals. A double-chamfered pointed chancel arch separates the nave from the chancel. From the chancel to the north-east chapel, two pointed arches form an arcade with a central octagonal pier dividing the chancel from the Bicknell or Lady Chapel.

The wall dividing the south aisle from the Lady Chapel is thought to contain 12th-century masonry. A triangular-headed archway pierces this wall through to the Lady Chapel. A double squint provides views from the Lady Chapel to the chancel. A 20th-century plank door sits within a 14th-century cusped doorway leading from the chancel to the vestry. An early plank door within a pointed roll-moulded and casement-moulded surround with moulded hood and head stops provides access to the first floor of the porch. A plank door within a pointed surround leads from the south-west corner of the north aisle to the tower.

Roofs

A lierne vaulted roof with a central bell-rope hole at its base covers the tower space. The 15th-century five-bay roof to the nave comprises braced moulded tie beams supported by wall posts set in moulded stone corbels. The north aisle has a 15th-century lean-to roof with intersecting moulded beams featuring gilded bosses, with wall posts supported on corbels carved with faces. The south aisle has a similar lean-to roof, with decorative carving to the spandrels of brackets linking wall posts to principal rafters.

A 20th-century painted four-and-a-half-bay arch-braced roof covers the chancel. The Lady Chapel and north-east chapel have 20th-century two-bay roofs with carved stone corbels designed to match those of the nave and north-east chapel. One corbel in the Lady Chapel bears the date 1489 in Arabic numerals, possibly indicating when the Lady Chapel was built. The north-east chapel retains a two-bay 15th-century roof with carved stone corbels.

Furniture and Fittings

A fine 15th-century goblet-shaped octagonal stone pulpit with a fluted stem and enriched crocketed pinnacles is attached to the easternmost column of the north nave arcade. At the west end of the south aisle stands a late 14th-century font with an octagonal bowl carved with heads, supported by angels playing musical instruments; below the pedestal, demons defeated by baptism are depicted.

Mutilated remains of a reredos with canopied niches retaining traces of colour survive at the east end of the south aisle. A 15th-century pillar piscina and aumbry are set in the south wall. Traces of two image brackets appear over the arch to the Lady Chapel. The south wall of the chancel contains 15th-century canopied sedilia. The upper parts of two croziers depicted in relief are positioned high in the south and north walls of the chancel.

The altar comprises a pre-Reformation stone mensa slab approximately two metres long, excavated from the floor of the chancel in 1884, placed on a wooden table with riddel posts dating from around 1930 by F.E. Howard. The vestry contains an undisturbed stone altar, suggesting this may represent the truncated remains of a chapel. Seating was designed by Sir Basil Spence. Former choir stalls by James Brooks survive in the north aisle.

Monuments and Brasses

A marble monument to the Reverend Joseph Askew, former headmaster and chaplain of The Union Workhouse who died in 1855, is mounted on the south wall of the south aisle. Framed fragments of vestments, some 16th century, hang on the wall below. Five 19th-century marble monuments are positioned in the north aisle.

The church possesses an unusually fine collection of ten brasses associated with leading woolmen of the town, dating from around 1400 to 1628. These include an acrostic poem on the wall in the south-east corner of the Lady Chapel in which each line begins with letters from the names Mawd Parker Thomas. Mawd Thomas died in 1584; Thomas Parker died in 1628.

A brass commemorating John Fortey, who instigated most of the church's 15th-century reconstruction and died in 1458, was moved to its present position under the second bay of the north arcade in 1961. Six wreathed medallions around the border contain the initials 'J.F.' and his trade mark. His feet rest on a woolpack, with an inscription in Latin below.

The remaining brasses are of similar quality, depicting woolmen, their wives and children, and including the symbols of their trade, illustrating the wealth of the town during the 15th and 16th centuries. On the east wall of the north-east chapel is the stone setting for a brass from which the figures have been lost.

Glass

Fragments of 15th-century stained glass survive in windows of the north and south aisles. The west end of the south aisle contains 19th-century stained glass. The chancel east window, installed in 1963 by Christopher Webb, is a notable modern addition.

David Verey described this church as 'one of the most dynamic examples of Perpendicular architecture in the Cotswolds if not anywhere'.