Church of St Peter and St Paul, Newport Pagnell
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| Church of St Peter and St Paul, Newport Pagnell | |
|---|---|
 St Peter and St Paul, Newport Pagnell | |
 | |
| 52°05′13″N 0°43′13″W / 52.08695°N 0.72038°W | |
| Location | Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Norman, English Gothic |
| Years built | 1355 (south doorway),[1] restored 1827.[2] |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Diocese of Oxford |
| Parish | Newport Pagnell |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Revd. Nick Evans |
The St Peter and St Paul is a Grade I listed parish church in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England.[1] The building is mainly medieval with many subsequent changes. The church was Grade I listed on 24 October 1950.[1]
Sometime in the mid-1100s, Fulk Paynel (the Norman lord of the town) granted the church (then called the Church of Saint Mary) to the priory of Tickford.[3][4] "The prior undertook to provide a dwelling-house for the vicar and a deacon to assist him, besides maintaining him at the table of the priory, paying him a yearly stipend of 20 shillings and allowing him a certain proportion of the offerings of parishioners".[2][a]
Architecture
The church is mainly medieval (14th Century) with a mid 16th century ashlar faced west tower; it was restored in the early 19th century, when battlements and pinnacles were added to the tower.[1] The south doorway and porch date from c. 1355.[1]
The chancel measures internally 37 ft 0 in × 18 ft 6 in (11.28 m × 5.64 m) and the north vestries, organ chamber and nave is 94 ft × 25 ft (28.7 m × 7.6 m).[2] "The east wall of the nave, which is 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) thick, probably incorporates the remains of the central tower of an early cruciform church, but all other parts of the structure were entirely rebuilt in the middle of the 14th century".[2]
The nave has a richly moulded low-pitched roof of the early 16th century, with foliated bosses at the intersections of the timbers. The wall-posts are connected to the beams by curved brackets and are supported by stone corbels carved as angels holding shields, while in front of each of the posts is a carved wood figure, two of the figures representing angels and the others saints, including the twelve apostles. There are also carved figures of angels at the centres of the tie-beams and at the feet of the intermediate rafters. The lean-to roofs of the aisles are of the same character and period, and have carved wooden figures at the lower corners. Tie-beams and wallplates of the Tudor period have also been re-used with the modern timbers of the chancel roof.[2]
— Victoria History of the Counties of England: a history of the County of Buckingham (1927)
The rood screen (or chancel screen) dates from 1875.[5]