Church of St Peter and St Paul

Church of St Peter and St Paul

This is the parish church of Charlton Adam, originating in the 14th century but largely rebuilt in the 15th century. It was restored by H. Wilson in 1892. The building is constructed from local lias stone, cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings and stone slate roofs between coped gables.

The church follows a three-cell plan consisting of a two-bay chancel, three-bay nave, and single-bay south chantry chapel, with a west tower and south porch added to this arrangement.

The chancel has a plinth and angled corner buttress with moulded offsets, and is crowned with a gabletted cross finial at its east end. The east window is a three-light 15th-century window with cinquefoil cusping, set within a hollowed recess. The north side features two small cusped lancets with a buttress between them. On the south side is an early 15th-century traceried two-light window in a hollowed recess, its cill having been raised in height. To the left of these openings is an angled projection that forms a link between the chantry chapel and chancel, containing a small moulded arched doorway and a two-light 16th-century window.

The chantry chapel has a plinth and angled corner buttresses. Both its east and south walls are pierced by four-light flat-headed windows with square labels. The nave is mostly rendered but retains a plinth and plain offset buttresses at bay intervals. In the north wall is a projection containing a small 14th-century window for a former rood stair, followed by two two-light 15th-century traceried windows with arched labels and square stops. The south wall has a smaller two-light 15th-century window set in a hollowed recess.

The south porch has an angled corner buttress and a moulded pointed arched doorway with an arched label and square stops. Inside the porch is a plainer possibly 14th-century arch with an ovolo mould to its runouts and an 18th-century door. Two cinquefoil niches, one above the door and one in the east wall, both contain statues. A small 20th-century boiler house sits low on the north-east corner of the building.

The tower rises in three stages and has a tall plinth, an angled offset buttress rising nearly to full height, string courses with gargoyles, a slightly battlemented parapet, and a pyramidal roof. A square-plan stair turret occupies the north-east corner, rising the full height with small slit windows and a small drilled window at its base. The west door of the tower has a moulded pointed arch and is surmounted by a three-light 15th-century traceried window set into a hollowed recess, breaking through the string course which forms its label. Stage two has a two-light window on the west face, while stage three has similar two-light windows with wooden baffles on each face. A clockface sits beneath the south window of stage three.

Inside, the chancel features a timber rib and plaster-panel segmental vault ceiling and a small 15th-century moulded chancel arch. A 19th-century squint pierces the south wall. A plain piscina, possibly 14th-century, survives, along with 19th and 20th-century fittings. The nave has a timber ribbed barrel vault with moulded principals, formerly with plastered panels. A 16th or 17th-century moulded three-centre arch gives access to the chantry chapel, while a 15th-century tower arch opens to that space. The former rood loft stair remains visible in the north wall. The chantry chapel has a vaulted ribbed roof, formerly plastered.

Fittings include a simple tulip-bowl font on a turned base, probably early 14th-century, and an early 17th-century pulpit with three panels on each face and a moulded top, set on a 19th-century base. Several paintings are also present.

Monuments include a standing wall monument to Thomas Basket, died 1592, executed in Ham stone with a strap cartouche and inscription between two Doric columns carrying a pedimented hood with finials and shields. Over the squint are two black-painted Keinton stone slabs: one to Anne Bonham, died 1638, and another to Giles Strangways, died 1677, the latter featuring a pedimented hood on Doric columns with ball finials in a distinctly rural style. Several other 18th-century painted Keinton stone panels remain. The reredos is a copy of a fresco by Perugino executed by the late Mrs C Neville of The Abbey. A few fragments of 15th-century stained glass survive in the west window.