Description

SU3987NE
9/59

WANTAGE
CHURCH STREET (north side)
Church of St Peter and St Paul

22/04/50

GV
I
Church. Late C13 cruciform plan with tower; chancel extended in C15; C15 chapels and aisles; restored by G.E Street 1857 and extended one bay to west in 1877 by W. Butterfield. Coursed and random limestone rubble; limestone ashlar to C15 north and south chapels; sheet metal roof, stone slates to transepts. Cruciform plan with tower over crossing.

Geometrical style east window by G.E Street, c.1857; offset corner buttresses; south wall of chancel has C15 four-centred moulded blocked doorway, offset buttress and C15 three-light window, also to north wall. G.E Street heightened chancel and inserted late C13 style clerestory windows. North chapel of chancel has C15 offset buttresses, one C15 two-light and two C15 three-light square-headed windows and mid C19 inserted pointed roll-moulded doorway. Similar windows without label moulds and with gargoyles to parapet of south chapel. South transept has pointed moulded doorway of c.1877, offset buttresses, left angle buttress having mid C18 wall tablet; C13 lancet in west wall, four-light late C13 style south window of c.1857; chapel to east has one C15 two-light and one C15 three-light window, parapet continued through to south chapel. North transept has offset corner buttresses, hood moulds over C15 three-light north window and two-light east window.

North wall of nave has pointed arches over two C15 four-light windows; C15 sacristy has quatrefoil window and chamfered four-centred window to east, label mould over mid C19 three-light north window in C15 style, and, one-light window adjoining C15
chamfered square-headed west doorway. South wall of nave has similar aisle and clerestory windows and C18 wall tablet to east. C15 porch removed from original central position to west end by Butterfield, 1877; reset C15 south doorway with carved leaf spandrels and C15 ribbed door. West wall of nave rebuilt in 1877 by Butterfield, has C15 style four-light windows to aisles, offset buttresses and two reset late C13 two-light transomed windows. Tower over crossing has late C13 two-light windows, polygonal stair-turret to south west and corbel table to crenellated parapet. Gabled roof, except lean-to aisle and chapel roofs.

Interior: chancel has fine reredos, Minton tile floor, altar rail and benches of c.1857. Late C14 stalls with bench-end and misericord carvings. Alabaster effigy of Sir William Fitzwarin, d.1361, and his wife to north, formerly with canopy. C13 piscina, wall monument to William Wilmot, d.1684, and signed by William Bird of Oxford. North wall has four-centred moulded doorway with C15 ribbed door, and aedicule with scrolled pediment framing wall tablet with date 1621 above. Six bay arch-braced collar-truss roof of c.1857 above clerestory inserted by Street. C15 two bay arcade and C15 screen and door with one-light cinquefoil-headed divisions to south chapel, which has two C15 piscinas, early C19 and C18 wall tablets.

Late C13 two-bay arcade and screen of c.1857 to south transept, which has mid C19 pews and late C14 four-bay arch-braced collar-truss roof with carved bosses, collar purl in and cornices. North wall of chancel has C15 two bay arcade and C15 screen and door, with one-light cinquefoil-headed division to north chapel which has wall brasses to William Willmott, d.1621 and to a priest c.1330; C15 lean-to roof; C13 south respond with stiff-leaf capitals and C15 two-bay arcade to north transept.

North transept wall brasses to Sir Ives Fitzwarin, 1414, and of C15 priest, and wall tablets to John Stevens, d.1750 and Edward Moulden, d.1744; similar four bay roof as to south transept. Crossing has late C13 triple-chamfered arches on clustered columns. Nave has mid C19 pews. Pulpit of 1857, possibly by G.E Street, mid C19 pews and 'splendid' (Pevsner) chandelier dated 1711; late C13 four bay arcade extended one bay to west c.1857; C15 nine bay hammerbeam roof on carved corbels extended to west (by two bays) c.1857. North aisle has C15 piscina.

South aisle has octagonal font with cover possibly by Street, wall tablets to John Watson, d. 1784, and John Stamp, d.1729, and his wife, by John Townsend Jun; mid C19 lean-to roof; brass to Walter Talbot d.1522, and two wives. Mid/late C19 stained glass: C15 St Stephen in west lancet window of south transept, and heraldic shields. South chapel of chancel given as a chantry in mid C15 by the Trades Guilds of Wantage and restored in late C19 in memory of Rev. W.J Butler. North chapel of chancel was chantry chapel of the Fitzwarin family

Listing NGR: SU3968787913

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Peter and St Paul at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17529106

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair