Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a parish church located in Shepton Mallet, primarily built in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, with significant alterations in the 19th century. Constructed from Doulting ashlar, the church is designed in the Perpendicular style and consists of a nave, north and south aisles, a chancel, and a western tower. The tower, dating from 1380, is a notable example of early Perpendicular style, featuring prominent set-back buttresses at each corner that connect diagonally across the angles and terminate in freestanding pinnacles. Additional diagonal shafts on the tower itself also end in pinnacles. The tower has a pierced parapet with quatrefoils and a stair turret on the north side. The west window consists of six lights with geometrical tracery, above three niches for statuary, including an original central figure. There are two-light bell openings flanked by blank two-light windows, and the roof has the stump of an unfinished spire.

The aisles were rebuilt in 1836 by Wainwright, with six bays each. Above the clerestorey windows to the nave, which were added in 1881, the nave features a pierced parapet with pinnacles between each bay. The chancel was rebuilt in 1847 and has a reticulated window of three lights at the east end, with a late 19th-century vestry to the south and a two-storey vestry from the 15th century to the north, which now houses the organ.

Inside, the church has a fan vault in the tower and an elaborate 15th-century wagon roof in the arcaded nave, with arches dating from the 12th century and an early 13th-century chancel arch. The wagon roof is particularly remarkable, consisting of 350 panels and 300 individually designed bosses. Notable furnishings include a pulpit from around 1450 with canopied and gabled niches, a 14th-century font, and two effigies of knights from the 13th century located in the north aisle. The tower contains nine memorial plaques from the 17th and 18th centuries, several dedicated to the Strode family, including William Strode, as well as plaques related to Strodes Bread Charity, which pertains to nearby almshouses. There are additional tablets from the 18th and 19th centuries, some made by King and Reeves of Bath and others by Paty and Wood of Bristol.