Description

SK 8411 - 8511 LANGHAM CHURCH STREET

2/155 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul 14.6.54

GV I

Large medieval parish church, principally of late C13 - mid C14, with some C15 alterations and conservative restorationsby Ewan Christian and Bodley and Garner in 1876-8 and 1880. Mostly ashlar faced. West tower and spire, nave with aisles and clerestory, S. transept (N. transept demolished in 1802) and transept aisle, chancel. Large and imposing late C13 W. tower of 3 stages, with a large 2-light window to the bell-chamber, with banded shafts and chevron decoration. Broach spire with 3 tiers of lucarnes, the lowest ornately traceried. S. side of church largely mid C14 in an early perpendicular style, with embattled parapets throughout, and much fine carved detail. Buttressed S. aisle, each buttress capped by a pinnacle, and a frieze of ball flower and other emblems: human heads, beasts etc. Perpendicular style traceried windows. Frieze and parapet continue to the S. porch of the same date, with triple-chamfered archway and a 2-light window with ball flower hoodmoulds, and cross on the gable above. Ironwork over doorway dated 1734. Inside the porch, the main door is a double chamfered arch with niche above, and across the angle above the door, a stone platform, relic of a former parvise. South side of porch continues as transept aisle and transept where the E. side wall is ironstone with freestone courses. Transept aisle has decorated window with ball flower decoration. The S. window of the transept is perpendicular and very large, and the corner pinnacles here proportionately loftier. The frieze over the transept contains figures, beasts, faces, flowers etc., and there is a large and battered gargoyle on the E. wall. Perpendicular clerestory with 2 windows in E. wall of nave, and carved frieze. Chancel is ironstone with ashlar courses and parapet, apparently partially rebuilt, perhaps in later C14 when E. window was inserted.

Spacious and light interior, which continues the traditions of fine carving. Triple chamfered tower arch with nail head decoration to responds. Nave of 4 bays with early C14 arcade, triple chamfered, on octagonal piers. Perpendicular clerestory and roof - cambered trusses on long supports, with pierced spandrels. S. transept and its aisle also early C14, with a good series of carved corbel heads, and C15 cambered trussed roof, and in the S. wall, a trefoiled recess for an altar reredos. N. transept arch survives. Chancel windows mainly perpendicular, but 2 are lancets. E. window has stained glass by J.N. Comper, who also did the glass in S. transept window (1908). Incised slab in transept: 2 praying figures and their children below, John Dickenson and his wife, 1532. Font, plain octagonal bowl on a low base, square with engaged shafts, C14.

Listing NGR: SK8436711205

External Links

• Church of St Peter and St Paul at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17529475

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)