Building record 4/1/1 - Church of St. Peter & St. Paul

The church is mainly of 14th century date, but it incorporates some 12th century material, it was restored circa 1866 by Sir G G Scott. Built of coursed limestone rubble with stone slate and lead roofs. The church consists of a chancel with vestry and organ chamber, a nave and clerestory, north and south aisles with porches, and a west tower with an octagonal spire.

{1} Church. C14 with C12 remains. Restored c.1866 by Sir G.G. Scott. Coursed limestone rubble, stone slate and lead roof. Chancel with vestry and organ chamber, nave and clerestory, north and south aisles with porches, west tower with octagonal spire. West porch. Exterior: North and south chancel walls late C12 with corbel table of carved heads. Perpendicular 4-light east window in chancel. Decorated windows in north and south chancel walls, 4-lights with reticulated tracery. (Renewed in south windows). Low side window with 4- centered head in south walls; priests doorway to east. Turret with stairs to former rood-loft in angle between chancel and south aisle. C19 vestry and organ chamber. Nave has battlemented parapet with sundial at south-east corner. Clerestory windows c.1500, each of 2 arched uncusped lights with square hoods. Roof pitch in north aisle lowered c.1500 and heads of large Decorated windows at east and west ends altered. 5-light west window retains some Decorated tracery but has been reduced in height and given square hood; east window has intersecting tracery, altered C19. Small doorway c.1500 with 4-centered head below west window in north aisle. Decorated south east window in north wall; 3- lights with reticulated tracery. 3-light Perpendicular window to left. C15 north porch has parapet with ball finials, probably of c.1832 (datestone with illegible inscription). Large Decorated east window in south aisle, 5-lights, has tracery with a wheel and triangles. Other south aisle windows are Decorated with reticulated and flowing tracery. Perpendicular south porch, originally gabled, now has C18 castellated parapet. Doorway has 4-centred arch with quatrefoil spandrels and square hood. Similar doorway to south aisle. Early C15 tower of 3 stages. 2-light bell openings with transoms and flowing tracery under square hoods, the end stops carved as figures with musical instruments. Straight parapet with blind quatrefoil tracery and gargoyles. At each corner a pair of crocketed pinnacles is linked by flying buttresses to octagonal spire which has 2-light lucarnes framed by pinnacles. Ridges of spire ornamented with crockets, and near apex, a band of fleur-de-lys. C15 west porch with crocketed pinnacles and square gable with canoped niche containing a headless statue of Virgin and Child flanked by kneeling figures. Porch interior has fan-vaulting. Doorway to nave has 4-centered arch with quatrefoil spandrels. Interior: Norman style blank arcading on north and south walls of chancel. C12 shafts, C19 arches with zig-zag mouldings; C19 piscinia and sedilia, but piscinia has re- used C12 mouldings. C14 chancel arch has hood with head stops and C19 responds. Chancel roof C19. North and south nave arcades 3-bays, plus fourth bay which forms base of tower. South arcade late C12, rebuilt and heightened C14 as indicated by tall proportions similar to C14 north arcade and use of ballflower moulding on one of the capitals. Retains C12 round piers with square abaci. Capital of east pier has scalloped decoration and that of north respond waterleaf. Unmoulded pointed arches have hood with nail-head decoration. C14 north arcade has quatrefoil piers with moulded capitals and double chamfered arches. Re-used C12 fragments at base of 2-piers, including part of scalloped capital. Panelled timber roof in nave c.1500, with carved and gilded bosses. C14 piscinia with cusped ogee arch and pinnacles in south aisle. Recess below south east window ornamented with band of quatrefoil, trefoils and blank shields. Panelled timber roof in south aisle, c.1500, with carved bosses one with the letter "R". North aisle roof similar, also c.1500 has bosses with heraldic shields. Fittings: Romanesque font with roughly cut bowl. Screen c.1866 by Sir G.G. Scott. Pews c.1842 with carved poppy heads. (Architect for re-pewing was D.G. Squirhill, as recorded on wooden tablet in south aisle). Wood panel carved with 3 pairs of figures in relief, c.1500, in north aisle. Wall monument in chancel to Thomas Langton Freke died 1769. Plaster relief of "The Resurrection" with two-thirds life size figures of Christ holding banner and angel trampling on a skeleton. In the style of Roubilliac. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire p.278-9).

{3} There appears to be no Anglo-Saxon stonework in the fabric of the church, though the font is hopefully labelled as 7th century and connected with the local saint, St Rumbold. It is extremely unlikely to be this early- stone fonts are rare before c. 1100. However, there are aspects of the plan and interior of the church which indicate that the medieval building was expanded and rebuilt around an earlier core and tower. The plan of the church shows it to be of the 'clasped tower' type: it has a short nave (only three bays), with unusually wide aisles which extend to both sides of the large west tower. The suggestion is that the existent nave and tower core prevent the nave being extended westwards, even though, at Kings Sutton, the earliest dateable fabric of the church is of the 12th century and the tower is 14th century.The shape of the building has a number of Anglo-Saxon characteristics: though short, the nave is very tall, and it appears that the clerestory windows were cut through the existing nave wall in the 16th or 17th century. The 'ghost' of the Saxon church lies within the medieval one, as the ghosts of the community of priests which staffed it are in the long chancel with its twelve sedilia: these are of Norman date and make clear the scale of the ecclesiastical organisation here. This was not a one priest church even in the 12th century.

{10} Three undated photos, also two dated December 1964.

{11} [Former list description] The Church of St Peter and St Paul at King's Sutton, originally
Norman has undergone many alterations and additions during the
medieval period.

{12} [Former list description] A Church of St. Peter and St. Paul
Stone, stone tile and lead roofs. The church was originally Norman. The chancel has a corbel table on the exterior and had Norman sedilia on either side, the arcading of which has been extended along the sides of the chancel in an early C.20 restoration. The windows in the side walls are Decorated and the E. window is Perpendicular as is the chancel arch. The S. arcade of the nave is Transitional with fretted ornament on the arches. The S. aisle has good Decorated windows and a Decorated piscina. The N. arcade is C.14, the N. aisle has Decorated windows and a Perpendicular roof. The nave roof is Perpendicular. On the exterior the nave has a battlemented parapet. The N. porch is C.14, altered late Perpendicular.
The W. tower and tower arch are Perpendicular. The tall tower has a parapet with quatrefoil panelling, crocketted pinnacles, flying buttresses and slender stone spire with crocketted ridges. Below the parapet at the corners are boldly carved gargoyles. Abutting on to the tower is a Perpendicular W. porch with niches and figures over the W. door and corner pinnacles. The interior of this porch has stone lierne vaulting. The font is Norman. The rood loft staircase leads from the S. aisle. The church is being restored by the Historic Churches Fund and many of the monuments are covered, but on the S. wall of the chancel is the Freke monument, 1769 a sculptured Resurrection. The churchyard has good C.18 headstones.

[13} Listed as an Anglo-Saxon minster.

{15} Notes, sketches, drawings, measurements, a letter, a rubbing, rubbing of weather-cock, two photos, drawing of font and of jug;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 11/144 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F01 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.278-79 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> Glynne S., 1859, Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne, (unchecked) (Manuscript). SNN39492.

<5> Hayter D., 2003, King's Sutton: An Early Anglo-Saxon Estate?, p.7-21 (unchecked) (Article). SNN103611.

<6> Hayter P., 2001, King's Sutton Churchwarden's Accounts 1636-1700, (unchecked) (Series). SNN109367.

<7> Baker G., 1830, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.699-701 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77327.

<8> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.179-80 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<9> Kings Sutton - The Decline of Astrop, (unchecked) (Report). SNN70285.

<10> Photographs of buildings in Kings Sutton (Photographs). SNN112715.

<11> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, Ministry of Housing and Local Government list, Brackley Rural District, 1955 (Report). SNN112993.

<12> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, DOE(HHR) District of Brackley Rural District, September 1960 (Report). SNN112993.

<13> Blair, J, 1994, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, 50,52,57,66,75,147,162,192 (Book). SNN114064.

<14> Historic England, Undated, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Kings Sutton, BF107352 (Archive). SNN116063.

<15> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/167/1-10,12-59 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Dec 17 2024 9:28AM