St Peter's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

in Draycott, Somerset, England. It dates from 1861. Designed by Charles Edmund Giles, the church is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. It holds a notable

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

by the celebrated

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

art-architect

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...

, which the church controversially attempted to sell in 2006.

History and description

The church was designed by Charles Edmund Giles and consecrated in 1861. The building stone is

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, known locally as 'Draycott Marble', a

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite (see Dolomite (rock)). An alternative name sometimes ...

conglomerate quarried nearby. The church is in a simple Early English revival style.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

's listing record describes it as "competent", while Pevsner considers it "modest". The interior contains a

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

fashioned in

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

. It is later in date than the church and Historic England suggests that the designer may have been

George Fellowes Prynne George Halford Fellowes Prynne (1853–1927) was a Victorian and Edwardian English church architect. Part of the High Church school of Gothic Revival Architecture, Prynne's work can be found across Southern England. Biography Early life George H ...

. The church is an active parish church in the benefice of Cheddar, Draycott and Rodney Stoke.

Burges font

The church's most notable feature is its

. In his study, ''Anti-Ugly'', the architectural historian

Gavin Stamp Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian. Education Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then ...

described it as "the one object that makes t. Peter'sinteresting". It is uncertain how the font came to St Peter's. Recent research confirms that it was made for the Rev. John Augustus Yatman, a patron for whom Burges undertook a number of West Country–based commissions. The font's size suggests that it was not originally designed for St Peter's. It is possible that the original intended site was the

Church of St James, Winscombe The Church of St James in Winscombe, Somerset, England, has 12th- or 13th-century origins but the present building dates from the 15th century. It is a Grade I listed building. There are no records remaining of the Norman church on the site, thou ...

, where Burges reconstructed the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

in 1863–64. It is attributed to Burges on stylistic grounds, and on the basis of a sketch in his notebooks. The style is Romanesque. It was likely sculpted by Thomas Nicholls. The faces of the font depict the Four Ages of Man, a design Burges subsequently reused at St Mary's, Studley Royal, in Yorkshire, and at his own London home,

The Tower House The Tower House, 29 Melbury Road, is a late-Victorian townhouse in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, London, built by the architect and designer William Burges as his home. Designed between 1875 and 1881, in the French Got ...

. Controversially, in 2006, the church attempted to sell the font for £110,000. The church had been approached by a private collector who offered to buy it and to fund a replacement. The vicar, the Rev. Stanley Price, contended that the sale was essential to meet a repair and restoration bill of an estimated £170,000. The sale was initially approved by the Chancellor of the

Diocese of Bath and Wells The Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the ...

, Timothy J Briden, but permission was subsequently refused in April 2009, when the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...

appealed to the

Court of Arches The Arches Court or Court of Arches, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court. It takes its name fr ...

, one of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

's highest courts. The court found "no compelling need to dispose of the font had been demonstrated" and concluded that, if allowed, "much of which adorns and adds interest, both historically and architecturally, to our churches would be lost to future generations."

Gallery

St Peters Church Draycott - font 2.jpg, The Burges font St Peters Church Draycott - exterior 1.jpg, The east end St Peters Church Draycott - exterior 9.jpg, The porch St Peters Church Draycott - interior.jpg, The interior

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

{{Commons category, St Peter's Church, Draycott, Somerset
Historic England photographic study of the Burges font
Draycott Draycott Draycott Churches completed in 1861 1861 establishments in England 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival architecture in Somerset Gothic Revival church buildings in England