"The church of ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL consists of chancel 31 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft., with north vestry and organchamber, north and south transeptal chapels each 16 ft. by 14 ft., clearstoried nave of four bays 64 ft. 6 in. by 24 ft., north aisle 11 ft. wide and south aisle 9 ft. 6 in. wide, the width across the nave and aisles being 50 ft. 6 in., south porch and west tower 13 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a spire.
No part of the building is older than the 13th century, in the early part of which period the church appears to have been rebuilt on its present symmetrical plan, the tower being added in the 14th century, and the clearstory erected. In this latter period, too, the chancel and aisles appear to have been remodelled, the north aisle being then perhaps widened. The building may thus be said to be mainly of 13th and 14th century date, but a restoration carried out about 1850, following the destruction of the spire by lightning, was so wide in its extent and so drastic in its manner as to amount almost to a complete rebuilding, and much apparently sound material was discarded and replaced by new work. Externally the church has in a large degree the appearance of a new building, though in the main the fabric retains its original character and the beautiful tower and spire have lost little or nothing by restoration. With the exception of the west window of the south aisle, which is of 14th-century date, and one now blocked in the corresponding position in the north aisle, all the windows are modern. The restoration included the removal of galleries, the reduction in height of the aisle walls, and the renewal of the roofs. The old porch was taken down and a new one built, and the vestry and organ chamber were added.
The tower is faced with ashlar, but elsewhere the walling is of coursed dressed stone. The roofs of the chancel and vestry are covered with stone slates, but the other roofs are leaded; there are parapets to the nave only. Internally, with the exception of the tower, all the walls are plastered.
The chancel has a modern east window of five lights, but internally the shafted jambs are of 13th-century date, as is apparently the single sedile, under a plain chamfered arch, in the south wall. In the north wall is a tomb recess with plain two-centred chamfered arch, within which a later tomb described below is set, and in the south wall two modern three-light windows and a priests' doorway. At its west end the north wall is open to the organ-chamber by a modern pointed arch. Externally the chancel has diagonal angle buttresses, and on each side of the east window is a large trefoil-headed niche; a smaller niche in the gable is an original feature restored. The 13th-century chancel arch is of two moulded orders, with chamfered hood-mould, springing from half-round responds with moulded bases, and capitals carved with stiff-leaf foliage.
The nave arcades are of four pointed arches, the three easternmost on each side moulded, and the westernmost arch of two chamfered orders, all with hood-moulds. On the north side the arches spring from cylindrical piers and half-round responds, the responds and the easternmost pier having capitals with stiff-leaf foliage, that of the pier enriched with human heads below the leaves. The other piers have circular moulded capitals, and all the bases are moulded, but differ in design. In the south arcade the responds are again half-rounds, but the piers consist of eight attached shafts, with moulded capitals following the same plan, and water-holding bases on low, square-chamfered plinths. The capital of the eastern respond has stiff-leaf foliage similar in character to that of the chancel arch, but that of the west respond is moulded and enriched with nail-head. All the arches and the two easternmost piers of the south arcade, as already stated, were rebuilt at the restoration, but though no doubt much of the stonework was re-used there is a great deal that is entirely new and the work seems to have been done in a somewhat haphazard manner.
The chapels were built in conformity with the design of the nave and aisles, the width of each chapel being the same as that of the easternmost bay of the arcades; the chapels are under separate gabled roofs and are divided from the aisles by transverse arches of two chamfered orders springing from half-round responds with moulded capitals enriched with nail-head, and from the adjacent piers of the nave arcades. The south transept has pairs of buttresses at the angles, and a modern three-light window in the east wall; the remains of a window in the south wall were removed at the restoration, and the wall built solid. No ancient ritual arrangements remain in this part of the church, but in the north transept there is a piscina in the south-east angle, with plain moulded recess and fluted bowl. This transept has a modern three-light window in the north wall, but its east window was removed at the restoration when the organ chamber was built. The diagonal north-east buttress, which was a 14th-century addition, has a triangular head with cinquefoil cusping and fleur-de-lys cresting.
The restored 14th-century window at the west end of the south aisle is of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, but the corresponding blocked window of the north aisle is apparently rather earlier in date, of two uncusped lights with forked mullion. The modern windows of the aisles are of three lights with geometrical tracery; the north and south doorways are also modern. The clearstory windows are square headed and of two trefoiled lights.
The tower is of three stages marked by strings, and has a chamfered plinth and high moulded base, with pairs of buttresses set well back from the angles. The buttresses have triangular heads in the two lower stages, but slope back at the top. There is a vice in the south-west angle, lighted by a series of small cusped circular openings. In the lower stage is a west window of two trefoiled lights and quatrefoil in the head, the north and south sides being blank, and the middle stage has an uncusped circular opening on each side in its lower part, the north and south sides having in addition a lozenge-shaped quatrefoil opening higher up. The tall and deeply recessed double bell-chamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the head and embattled transom at half height, the openings below which are again trefoiled. Each face of the tower is slightly recessed, the plain buttressed angles supporting four large octagonal turrets, between which the tower proper terminates with a battlemented parapet. Behind this rises a somewhat lofty octagon, forming the base of a short but well-proportioned spire. The octagon has shafted angles and a battlemented parapet, and each of its faces is pierced by a transomed window of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the head. The spire has plain angles and two tiers of gabled lights. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of three moulded orders, the innermost order springing from responds composed of three engaged columns with moulded capitals and bases. The lower stage has a restored quadripartite vaulted roof with circular well-hole.
The octagonal 14th-century tub font has shafted angles with moulded bases and capitals from which spring trefoiled ogee arches terminating in rich finials, between which, in the spandrels, are heads, alternately male and female. Within the niches the sides have trefoiled panels. The flat cover of oak and bronze dates from 1905.
The pulpit and other fittings are modern. There is no chancel screen. A Jacobean altar table, long removed, was restored to the church in 1908, and is now used in the south transept, which is fitted up as a War Memorial chapel. In the nave, above the arcades, is a great display of the funeral banners and armour of the Harington and Noel families.
It remains to notice the fine series of monuments in different parts of the church. The earliest of these is a table tomb on the north side of the chancel commemorating Nicholas Green (ob. c. 1379) with marble slab and panelled sides of freestone. The slab has a floriated calvary cross in slight relief, with a blank shield on the stem and one on either side; round the verge is an inscription in Norman French.
The fine marble table tomb of John Harington (d. 1524) and his wife Alice, with recumbent alabaster effigies, is now under the tower, but formerly stood on the south side of the body of the church. Each of the long sides has three panels with the arms of Harington and Culpeper and round the verge is a Latin inscription.
Against the south wall of the south transept is a large coloured marble monument with recumbent effigy of Robert Kelway, lawyer (d. 1580), erected by his daughter Ann and her husband John, Lord Harington, who are represented kneeling on either side of a small altar tomb on which is a child's recumbent figure: behind the lady is a young daughter. The monument bears a long Latin inscription.
The monument to Sir James Harington (d. 1591) and his wife Lucy Sydney stands against the north wall of the chancel and is of coloured marble with alabaster figures kneeling before a faldstool, in separate round arched recesses; over the figures are respectively the arms of Harington and Sydney, and the entablature, which is supported by black marble columns, is surmounted by tall obelisks, flanking a large strapwork armorial panel. A long Latin inscription occupies two panels in the base.
Another monument, now in the tower but formerly in the north transept, is the black-and-white marble table tomb with recumbent figure of Anne, wife of Lord Bruce of Kinlosse and daughter of Sir Robert Chichester and his wife Frances, one of the daughters and co-heirs of John Lord Harington, Baron of Exton; she died in childbirth in 1627 in her 22nd year. The tomb bears an inscription in Latin and English.
Against the west wall of the north transept is the white marble effigy of James Noel, second Viscount Campden, who died at the age of eighteen in 1681. He is represented standing, with his right elbow on a pedestal on which are two infants on a cushion. The inscription includes Latin and English verses.
Occupying the whole of the east wall of the same transept is an elaborate marble monument with standing figures of Baptist Noel, third Viscount Campden (d. 29 Oct. 1683) and his fourth wife Elizabeth Bertie who in her own lifetime gave moneys and left orders for the monument's erection, 'which by her third son and executor, the Hon. John Noel, was punctually performed, 1686.' The monument is the work of Grinling Gibbons, and comprises several sculptured white marble panels of great beauty. Lord Campden is represented in Roman dress; by his four wives he had nineteen children.
The two remaining monuments belong to the latter half of the 18th century, and are by Nollekens. The earlier, which stands against the west wall of the north aisle, commemorates Lieut.-General Bennett Noel (d. 1766), and consists of a round arched canopied recess in which is a female figure with extin guished torch leaning upon a large urn on which is carved a bust of the deceased. The arch is carried on fluted pilasters and has an armorial keystone and cherubs in the spandrels. The monument was erected in 1787 in conformity with the bequest of General Noel's widow, Elizabeth Adams (d. 1784), who is buried with her husband.
The later monument, which stands against the south wall of the chancel, was erected in 1790 in memory of Elizabeth (Chapman), Countess of Gainsborough (d. 1771) and her two husbands, Baptist fourth Earl of Gainsborough (d. 1751) and Thomas Noel, Esquire, of Wilcot Hall, Northants (d. 1788). The Countess is represented reclining upon a sarcophagus, her right arm resting on a cornucopia and her left hand pointing to medallion busts of herself and her husbands: below the medallions is a weeping cherub with extinguished torch.
There are also memorials to Frances, Countess of Gainsborough (d. 1885), the Hon. Henry Lewis Noel (d. 1898), George, second Baron Penrhyn (d. 1907), Tom Cecil Noel (killed in action 1918), and to fifteen men of the parish who fell in the war of 1914–19.
There are six bells, five of which were cast in 1675 by Tobie Norris (II) of Stamford, and the tenor by Joseph Eayre of St. Neots in 1763.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1581–2, a cup and paten of 1630–1, a paten of 1637–8, an alms dish of 1630–1, a cup of 1850–1, and a modern flagon.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all entries 1598–1700; (ii) 1708–52; (iii) baptisms and burials 1753–95; (iv) baptisms and burials 1795–1812; (v) marriages 1754–1812."
SOURCE - (
visit link)