Description

STOURTON WITH GASPER HIGH STREET ST 73 SE (south side) 6/135 Church of St Peter 6.1.66 GV I Anglican parish church. Early C14, C15, 1720s, early Cl9 and 1877 restoration, 1848 south aisle. Dressed limestone, tiled chancel roof, lead nave roof. West tower, nave with aisles, chancel with south organ chamber, north chapel and porch. Square flat-roofed north porch with Tudor-arched doorway and C20 double doors, plain parapet, aisle has 4-light Perpendicular window to right and three 4-light to left of porch, parapet with pierced triangles, clerestory has four late C14 three-light windows, parapet with cusped lozenges. East end of aisle has 4-light Perpendicular window. Chancel east window blocked 1937, south window late C14, coped verge with cross finial. 1877 vestry/organ chamber has polygonal east end, C19 door and cusped lancets, early c19 family pew has 4-light window and coped verge with missing finial. 1848 south aisle has 4-light window, parapet as north aisle, clerestory with four 3-light Perpendicular windows, parapet. West window of south aisle is reset C15, north aisle has 4-light Perpendicular window. Three-stage tower with diagonal buttresses carried up to clasping buttresses, moulded plinth, blocked west doorway, C19 square-headed window over, pointed south doorway, middle stage has 1848 gilded clockface, bellstage has 2-light Perpendicular windows with pierced wooden louvres, battlemented parapet with gargoyles. Interior: Porch has C19 double chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with double doors, fragments of reset C15 mouldings in side walls. Nave has C19 four-bay ribbed ceiling on gilded angel corbels. Early C14 north arcade of 3 1/2 bays; cylindrical columns with double chamfered pointed arches, second from east is triple chamfered. C19 south arcade in same style as north. Continuously double chamfered tower arch with C19 screen, steps up to exterior south door, blocked west door with stoup retained on north side. Double chamfered chancel arch with evidence of former rood loft, including narrow chamfered doorway high up on south side, 1877 stone pulpit and dwarf wall across arch, C19 three-bay arch-braced collar roof with cusped windbracing, 1877 organ chamber to right through moulded archway with C19 ogee doorway and aumbry to left. 1937 altar and statue of Christ in niche in blocked east window. North chapel has large monument with canopied niches and Perpendicular blind tracery, recumbent effigies of Fifth Lord Stourton, died 1536, and his wife, C12 cylindrical stone font from Monkton Deverill, also various C17 and C18 floor tablets to members of Stourton family, north window has some late C15 stained glass. Other fittings: 1877 pews, Hoare family pew on south side of nave has 1840s seating and panelled dado and fireplace on south wall, C20 brasses and plaques to Hoare family. Monuments in the south aisle to Hoare family reset here in C19; fine marble monument against south wall to Henry Hoare died 1785, creator of Stourhead Gardens, signed by C. Harris, 1789, another on east wall to Henry Hoare died 1724 with broken pediment, corinthian columns and flanking urns. White marble monument to Hester Hoare died 1785 with inscription recording its erection by Richard colt Hoare who died 1838. Nave walls have mostly C19 classical marble tablets to Hoares and others, gilded plaque on north aisle to record restoration in 1722-23 by Nathaniel Ireson, mason of Stourhead House and John Butcher, churchwardens. Recumbent effigy of woman in north aisle, probably Lady Stourton died c1400, cartouche over to Mary Ireson, wife of Nathaniel, died 1723. An important element in the Stourhead landscape and connected with its creators the Hoares from the C18 to C20. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Wiltshire, 1975; K. Woodbridge, The Stourhead Landscape, 1982)

Listing NGR: ST7763833944

External Links

• Wikidata Q17529961

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