St Peter ad Vincula is the
Grade I listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of
Hampton Lucy
Hampton Lucy is a village and civil parish on the River Avon, northeast of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 566.
History
The grammar school at Hampton Lucy was ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
and is part of the Barford Group of Churches.
It was built in the 1820s on the site of a demolished
medieval church.
History
The medieval church of
St Peter
) (Simeon, Simon)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire
, death_date = Between AD 64–68
, death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
, parents = John (or Jonah; Jona)
, occupation ...
originally stood "not exactly on the same site" as the present church.
It was demolished in 1822 when the
Lucy family of
Charlecote Park
Charlecote Park () is a grand 16th-century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon in Charlecote near Wellesbourne, about east of Stratford-upon-Avon and south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has be ...
employed
Thomas Rickman
Thomas Rickman (8 June 17764 January 1841) was an English architect and architectural antiquary who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival. He is particularly remembered for his ''Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture'' ...
and
Henry Hutchinson
Henry Hutchinson (16 October 1800 – 22 November 1831) was an English architect who partnered with Thomas Rickman in December 1821 to form the Rickman and Hutchinson architecture practice, in which he stayed until his death in 1831. Hutchinson ...
to design and build a new parish church in the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style. The result is described as "one of the best examples of Victorian Gothic style in Warwickshire"
and the "magnum opus"
of Rickman and Hutchinson.
![St Peter ad Vincula Church Hampton Lucy tower s elv Feb 2020](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/St_Peter_ad_Vincula_Church_Hampton_Lucy_tower_s_elv_Feb_2020.jpg)
The first phase of construction consisted of the
ashlared limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
, designed by Hutchinson and Rickman respectively. The nave consists of six bays with a north and south aisle. The external walls sit on a moulded
plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...
and the window hoods,
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
and
gables Gables may refer to:
* The plural of gable, portion of walls between the lines of sloping roofs
* Ken Gables (1919-1960), Major League Baseball pitcher
* Gables, Nebraska, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Gables, New South Wales, ...
are richly
carved
Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...
. The tower has three stages, terminating in octagonal
pinnacles
A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...
and a pierced,
crenellated
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
parapet.
In 1858 Sir
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
was employed to add a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
and north
porch
A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
, both of which are richly decorated in the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style.
A statue of St Peter in chains sits over the north porch along with the Lucy arms.
The east
window
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materia ...
, depicting the life of St Peter, was restored after it was damaged when an American aircraft crashed nearby during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The building was Grade I listed on 5 April 1967 as a "very good example of C19 church architecture".
The only remaining fabric of the medieval church are two groups of tiles in the floor of the south aisle, showing
heraldic symbols and designs of foliage.
Bells
Today there is only one
bell
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...
in the tower, cast by Thomas Mears in 1826. It was intended to be the tenor of a ring of eight, but the other bells and framework were never added. There was a ring of five in the tower of the original medieval church, cast by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1672–1673, which is now classed as a "lost ring". It was probably last rung in 1822 before the old church was demolished; the tenor weighed about 8
cwt.
See also
*
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, is a parish church of the Church of England in Coventry City Centre, West Midlands, England.
Above the chancel arch is an impressive Doom wall-painting.
History
The church dates from the 12th century and is t ...
– nearby medieval church, tower recased by Thomas Rickman in 1826
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hampton Lucy, Saint Peter ad Vincula
Grade I listed churches in Warwickshire
Gothic Revival church buildings in England
Gothic Revival architecture in Warwickshire