Church Of Saint Peter And Saint Paul

Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

An Anglican parish church with Saxon origins, though substantially rebuilt in the earlier 15th century. The building is constructed of locally quarried lias stone, roughly cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings. The roofs are covered in Welsh slate between stepped coped gables to the nave and chancel, with sheet lead elsewhere.

The church follows a six-unit plan comprising a two-bay chancel, three-bay nave, north and south aisles, single-bay chapels to the east end of each aisle, a north porch, south vestry, and west tower.

The chancel features a double plinth and angled corner buttresses with pinnacles at their heads. It is decorated with panelling and contains 15th-century traceried windows: a five-light window to the east and three-light windows to the side walls, all set in hollowed recesses beneath labels. The label to the east extends as a string course.

The south chapel is plainer, possibly modified in the 19th century, with a plinth, angled corner buttress, and eaves course. It contains three-light 15th-century traceried windows in hollowed recesses without labels. The south aisle is similar but features two-light windows under labels. The south vestry, also of 19th-century date, matches this style.

The north chapel has a double plinth, angled corner buttresses, a string course with gargoyles and battlemented parapet. It displays three-light 15th-century traceried windows to the east and north, and a small moulded pointed-arched doorway without label in the north wall, possibly from the early 19th century. The north aisle is similar to the south aisle, but its two-light windows have unusual moulded imposts to the mullions and jambs. A string course with battlemented parapets features quatrefoil panels to the merlons.

The north porch matches the north aisle in detail but is two storeys tall and more imposing. It has angled corner buttresses and a moulded outer pointed arch with small floriated capitals. Above is a two-light window without label. A small stair chamfer occupies the north-west angle. Inside, the porch contains a lierne vault with bosses and a central quatrefoil panel. A statue recess with a cinquefoil arch is present, along with a moulded inner arch without capitals.

The tower rises in three stages with a double plinth and pairs of full-height corner buttresses. A south-east octagonal stair turret with an outer door, string courses, and a battlemented parapet with corner and central pinnacles is positioned at the base. The west doorway is four-centred arched with quatrefoil spandrels beneath a square label. Above this is a five-light sub-arcuated window with plain transome in a hollowed recess, its curved label extending as a string course. A column stoup, set rather high, stands beside the door.

The south face of the first stage is plain, but the north face has a two-light blind traceried panel flanked by two shallow canopied recesses. The second stage features similar blind windows and statue recesses on three sides, with a small cinquefoil cusped window in a square hollowed recess on the south face. The third stage has pairs of two-light windows with pierced timber baffles and labels extended as strings, divided by diagonally set shafts crowned with pinnacles. The south face has only a single window.

Interior

The chancel is vaulted with a rib and panel vault featuring coloured bosses. Panelled arches lead to the side chapels, and a very wide chancel arch has small capitals to its outer shafts. Beneath the south-east window stands a three-seater sedilia with double ogee canopies and a small cusped-arch piscina in the east wall. A 13th-century sanctuary floor, using tiles from Muchelney Abbey, survives. A Lady Chapel was installed in 1873.

The nave has a ribbed and boarded ceiling with early 17th-century paintings of angels, cherubs, and clouds, with star panels at the east end and a crude sun in the centre. The arcades date to the 15th century and feature four-hollow piers. The south chapel contains a stone reredos of four niches, said to come from elsewhere in the parish. The aisles have chamfered beam and panel ceilings.

A 13th-century coffin slab forms part of the arch to the north porch, with a parvise stair nearby. A panelled arch provides access to the vestry in the south aisle. The space beneath the tower has a fan-vault ceiling and a blocked inner doorway to the stair.

Fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font on a panelled shaft with quatrefoil panels containing figures on the principal faces and corner added shafts. Its step incorporates more 13th-century tiles. The pulpit and lectern date to 1830 and were taken from the Chapel of the Lord Mayor of Bristol in 1889 or 1892. The pews are late 18th or early 19th-century box pews with matching dado panelling. Two 17th-century chairs in the chancel and a 17th-century corner cupboard and chest in the south aisle are preserved. Two medieval wooden figures are mounted in a panelled arch to the south aisle.

A George III hatchment board hangs in the north aisle, with later carving of Royal arms above the north door. A fragment of 17th-century tapestry survives in the tower space, and an oil painting of Christ in the Sepulchre hangs over the high altar.

Medieval fragments of stained glass appear in the east window, with some 17th and 18th-century glass in the side chancel windows, all surrounded by 19th-century work.