Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is an Anglican parish church located in Over Stowey village. The church has a long history, with its first recorded incumbent dating back to 1144. The tower, built in the 14th and 15th centuries, underwent significant rebuilding by Richard Carver in 1840, with further work completed in the late 19th century. The structure is made of roughly coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings, topped with slate roofs featuring a crested ridge, coped verges, and cruciform finials.

Architecturally, the church features a nave with a north aisle and a south porch, a chancel with a north chapel and vestry, and a west tower. The design incorporates elements of both Perpendicular and neo-Perpendicular styles. The tower is two stages high, embattled, and includes diagonal buttresses, a plinth with an offset, gargoyles, and an embattled topping stair-turret on the north side. The bell-chamber windows are 2-light with stone grilles, while the west side features a 3-light window and a west door within a moulded surround.

Inside, the nave consists of 1:2:1 bays with single and 3-light windows that have cambered heads. The north aisle has two bays, with windows that match the style of the nave. The chancel has three bays with trefoiled lancets and a 3-light east window. The interior is plastered with flagstone floors, and the chancel includes a mosaic pavement. The church features 19th-century wagon roofs, an arcade leading to the north aisle supported by piers with a 4-hollows section, a 14th-century tower arch, and a plain chancel arch.

Notable fittings include 15th-century bench ends, a 15th-century octagonal font, a 17th-century cover, 17th-century coffin stools, a large branch dated 1775, and various altar pieces, reredos, choir stalls, pews, pulpit, light fittings, and painted texts. The church also contains several memorials, including important floor slabs for Humfry Blake from 1619 and Baron Taunton from 1869, as well as an 18th-century wall monument under the tower and several 19th-century memorials, particularly to Thomas and James Rich from 1813/15 by H. Wood of Bristol. The church is adorned with stained glass, including an east window by Hardman from 1857 and six windows by Morris & Co., with two in the aisle from 1870 and 1874 that are particularly noteworthy.