Church Of St Peter And St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

This parish church dates from the 12th century onwards and is built of local stone, cut and squared, with ashlar dressings. The roof is laid with stone slate between coped gables, though the chancel has plain clay tiles. The building follows a four-cell plan with a two-bay chancel, three-bay nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel was at least partly rebuilt in 1863. It has a plinth and angled corner buttress, with a cross finial to the gable. The east window is a three-light window with reticulated tracery set within a pointed arch and label. On the south side is a two-light pointed-arch window with 15th-century tracery, the hood continuing as a string course to the corner. Nearer the nave is a single cusped-head lancet with label. Between these is a plain moulded pointed-arched doorway without label. Windows are repeated on the north side.

The north aisle has a slight plinth and angled corner buttresses. Its east window is a 14th-century three-light window with geometric tracery. The north wall contains two two-light 19th-century traceried windows. The west window has three lights with reticulated tracery without label. Above on the gable crown is a former bell turret with a cross finial. The south aisle has a slight plinth but no buttresses. Its east window is a two-light window with cusped plate tracery without label. South windows are a three-light window with slightly moulded plate tracery east of the porch, and a two-light window west of the same. The west window is a three-light late 15th-century traceried window with label. The east gable is crowned with a cuboid finial with circular holes to each face and a pyramidal top.

The south porch has no buttresses and a cross finial to the gable. It features a 13th-century style outer arch on corbelled capitals, with an inner arch that is pointed and moulded with run-off stops, though rather plain in detail.

The late 15th-century tower rises in two stages. It has a double plinth and offset corner buttresses extending almost to full height, crowned with small pinnacles. String courses mark each stage, the upper one decorated with gargoyles. The parapets are battlemented with ornamented corner pinnacles. A four-centre arch opens at the west door beneath a square label with diamond stops, the spandrils foliated. Above is a late 15th-century three-light window with label extended as an extra string course. Above this is a small canopied statue niche. On the south side, the upper stage features a recessed two-light pointed window with label and stone baffles. Similar windows appear on all faces of stage two. A square-plan stair turret with slit windows extending the full height occupies the north-east corner.

Inside, the chancel has a curved rib roof with bosses. There is an ogee-arched piscina, though most other fittings are 19th-century in date. The chancel arch is wide and in 13th-century style, resting on corbelled capitals, with evidence of old colour lining.

The nave has two 13th-century arcades—the south one probably recut—with octagonal piers. The north arcade features ball-flower decorated capitals, while the south has more foliated capitals. The tower archway may also date to this period. In the north aisle, an old doorway to a rood loft is positioned high on the south wall, with an ogee-arched piscina below. The north-east corner contains two fine statue recesses with traces of colouring: one dates to the late 14th century, the other to the 15th century. The north wall also has two cinquefoil-cusped ogee-arched recesses with moulded shelves but no effigies.

The south aisle features ornate rere arches to the windows: the east window has a cinquefoil-cusped arch, the west has an ogee-cusped arch. There is also a cusped ogee-arched recess beneath the south-east window.

A 19th-century Gothic-style low cast iron screen encloses the space beneath the tower, which leads to a plain circular tub font on a circular base. Some old Sherborne stained glass dating to around 1450 survives in the tracery of the west tower window.

A large grey and white 18th-century monument with tapered ionic columns carrying an open segmental pediment stands within the church, commemorating John Wright. Alongside the pulpit are the remains of a Roman incense altar of the 4th century, discovered in the churchyard.

The church is said to have an Anglo-Saxon basis, with the first documented evidence of the church dating to around 1100. It was rebuilt around 1215 by the Canville family, lords of the manor. The church was enlarged around 1340—the date of two chancel windows—when the chancel was also lengthened.