St Peter's Church is a
redundant Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
in
Claydon, Suffolk
Claydon is a village just north of Ipswich in Suffolk, England, formed directly as a result of John Jones. He built the village with the support of Henry Bacon. The meaning of the name is "clay-on-the-hill".
The village gives its name to the ...
, England. It is a
Grade I listed building
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 ...
,
and is in the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.
It overlooks the
Gipping
Gipping is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around three miles north north-east of Stowmarket, in 2005 its population was 80. At the 2011 Census the population remained less than 100 a ...
valley.
[
]
History
The earliest fabric in the church is in the 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 ...
, which is 10th- or 11th-century. The east window is from the 14th century, and the tower was added in the 15th century. Also around this time the north porch was built and doorways and windows in the nave were replaced.
A major restoration was carried out in 1852 under the direction of the then rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
, The high church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...
man Rev George Drury, working with the architect Richard Phipson
Richard Makilwaine Phipson (1827–1884)Wilson p. 158. was an English architect. As diocesan architect for the Anglican Diocese of Norwich, he was responsible for renovating almost 100 churches in East Anglia.
Biography
Phipson was born in Ipswi ...
. Until then the church had consisted of a nave, 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 ...
, a west tower and a north porch. The restoration included virtually rebuilding the chancel and adding the transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
s and organ chambers. Much of the joinery of the transept roofs and fittings was carried out by Henry Ringham. It is thought that some of the stained glass in the east window was designed by Rev Drury.[
The church was declared redundant in 1977 but it was not ]vested
In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...
in the Churches Conservation Trust until 11 years later.
Architecture
The church is built of flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
, parts of which have been rendered, with 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 ...
dressings. The roofs are tiled. The church has a short nave with a north porch, north and south transepts, a chancel, a vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
, and a west tower.
The nave seems to be Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
, indicated by characteristic long-and-short quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
at the western corners. The tower is Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
, and the parts restored in the 19th century are in a Decorated style. The tower has a battlement
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 ...
ed 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 ...
on which are seven limestone statues. There were originally eight, but one is missing. It is supported by buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es decorated with flushwork
In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" wi ...
. The nave contains moulded north and south doorways. The rear arch in the south doorway is round-headed. The nave roof is in three bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. The transept roofs contain carved bosses.
The octagonal limestone font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
dates from about 1400. The rest of the fittings date from the 19th-century restoration. These include the pulpit
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...
with its elaborate pierced tracery
Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...
.[ The two-]manual
Manual may refer to:
Instructions
* User guide
* Owner's manual
* Instruction manual (gaming)
* Online help
Other uses
* Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ
* Manual (band)
* Manual transmission
* Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...
organ was built in 1863 by Bevington.
See also
*
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claydon, Saint Peter
15th-century church buildings in England
Church of England church buildings in Suffolk
Churches completed in 1852
Churches with elements of Anglo-Saxon work
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust
English Gothic architecture in Suffolk
Gothic Revival architecture in Suffolk
Grade I listed churches in Suffolk