Description

STEEPLE ASTON NORTH SIDE SP4726 (North side) 8/106 Church of St. Peter and St. 08/12/55 Paul GV II*

Church. C13, C14 and C15; chancel rebuilt 1684; restored and north aisle partly rebuilt c.1842 by John Plowman; restored 1873 by Charles Buckeridge; vestry 1909. Limestone and coursed marlstone rubble with limestone-ashlar dressings; Welsh-slate and sheet-metal roofs. Chancel, north-east chapel, nave, north and south aisles, west tower, truth parch and north-east vestry. C17 chancel, with moulded strings below windows and the crenellated parapet, has to south 3 Tudor-arched 2-light windows with cussing below the transoms, plus a small priest's door with a round-arched roll-moulded surround; 3-light east window is similar but has 2 rows of transoms. Parallel north chapel, with a similar parapet, has a 3-light C14 east window with reticulated tracery, but is obscured on the north by the 2-storey C20 marlstone vestry. Marlstone south aisle, with a deep chamfered plinth and crenellated limestone parapet, has a restored 3-light south window with geometrical tracery; west window is C19 in C15 style South parapet breaks around tall porch and has fine gargoyles including a woman with pitchers; porch has an ashlar front with a canopied niche containing a C19 figure of St. Peter. C14 south door has continuous mouldings. North aisle, with a moulded parapet and frequent buttresses, has Tudor-arched windows of 3, 2 and lights with similar drop tracery, and has a 2-light C19 window to west. Large 3-stage rubble tower, with diagonal buttresses and a crenellated parapet, has a deeply-splayed west doorway, combining a wave mouiding and 2 wide casement mouldings, below a 2-light window With Y tracery; top stage has 2-light traceried bell-chamber openings; outer buttresses have blank shields in cusped rectangular panels. Interior: chancel has a C19 Perpendicular-style roof rising from large well-carved heads which may be of 1684, and has a large continuosly-moulded C14 arch leading to the north chapel, which retains an unusual C14 piscina with a traceried triangular head. C13 chancel arch has clustered responds with moulded capitals; 4-bay arcades are of similar date but with circular columns and, to east, detached shafts as responds. Arches are all of 2 chamfered orders, except the tower arch which is of 3 dying into plain masonry responds which may be later. South aisle has an ogee-headed piscina and good C14/C15 head corbels; north aisle has earlier corbels, possibly re-used, and in the splay of a window is a moulded octagonal pedestal for statue. C19 aisle roofs are in Perpendicular style with moulded timbers; nave has a panelled 5-canted roof. Fittings include an unusual font (possibly C12) with vigorous chevron decoration, a large number of carved traceried bench ends, some of which are medieval, and fine Arts and Crafts oak lectern inlaid with various woods and mother-of-pearl. C15 chancel screen has 2 tiers of open traceried panels and original ferramenta. North chapel has the late-C17 communion rails with heavy turned balusters. The fine brass chandelier is probably C18. Chancel, chapel and the east window of the south aisle have stained glass of c.1900 by C.E. Kempe, and there are a few C15 quarries in the north aisle. Monuments include a brass of 1522; a wall tablet to Daniel Greenwood (died 1673), and early-C18 wall monuments to the Marten family, with a cartouche of arms, and to Richard Duckworth, rector, with a broken segmental pediment enclosing a garlanded urn and with flanking consoles. In the north chapel is the notable monument of c.1730 by Scheemakers to Sir Francis and Lady Page, with 2 fine reclining effigies below an immense Baroque architectural composition. In grey marble. (VCH: Oxfordshire: Vol XI, pp41-3; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire; pp786-7)

Listing NGR: SP4760026070

External Links

• Wikidata Q17548364

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Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)