The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a church in Preston, Rutland. It 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, Hi ...

History

The church has a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, tower, north and south aisles,

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 a

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 ...

. The bay of the north aisle dates back to c1150 and the south from c1200. The tower dates to the 13th century and a century later, remodelling took place. The

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 ...

, a plain bowl on four cylindrical legs, dates to the 13th century. The chancel dates to the 13th century; the sedile has a

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-headed arch. The stone

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

, the design of

Edward Browning Edward Bailey Browning (1816 – 1882) was an English architect working in Stamford. Life Edward Browning was the son of the Stamford architect Bryan Browning (1773–1856). He was apprenticed to the London architect George Maddox and ...

, incorporates a marble relief by

Mario Raggi Mario Raggi (1821–26 November 1907) was an Italian sculptor who settled in England, where he received several public commissions for statues of civic figures. Biography Raggi was born in Carrara, Italy, where he learnt to sculpt, and won seve ...

; it was placed in the chancel in 1881 in memory of former rector, William Belgrave. The stained glass in the east window is by Alfred Gérente (1856). The chancel has some lamps which came from the

Street called Straight Straight Street, from the Latin Via Recta ( ''al-Shāriʿ al-Mustaqīm''), known as the Street called Straight () in the New Testament, is the old ''decumanus maximus'', the main east-west Roman road, of Damascus, Syria. It runs from east to west ...

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, and it has a carved

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

stone. Lt. Col. J. A. Codrington presented these

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern items to the church in 1923. Two

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

pieces from the Church of St John the Baptist, Constantinople and a piece of

Verde Antique Verd antique (obsolete French, from Italian, ''verde antico'', "ancient green"), also called verde antique, ''marmor thessalicum'', or Ophite, is a serpentinite breccia popular since ancient times as a decorative facing stone. It is a dark, dull ...

from St Sophia's Church in Nicaea (İznik), are just some of the items he donated. The

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

trees outside the church, were grown from seeds collected from the

Garden of Gethsemane Gethsemane ( ) is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus Christ underwent the Agony in the Garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. The garden is ...

References

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