St Peter And St Paul
Wisbech
Cambridgeshire
The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Wisbech was constructed in the C12
Architectural Features
was substantially rebuilt in the C14.
A two storey C14 porch with angle buttresses surrounds the south door of the church.
The porch doorway has a C14 moulded label with continuous outer order over a moulded two-centred arch springing from moulded capital with attached shafts.
A late C17 sundial with a shaped pediment containing an ouroboros sits above the doorway.
Carved panels depicting the arms of Canterbury and Ely, the Wheel of St Catherine and the chalice and host sit above the belfry lights.
INTERIOR: The north nave arcade dates to the C12 and is of five bays with round arches, the most easterly with a chevron ornament.
The central, C15 arcade is of four bays with obtuse arches of two orders springing from slender piers with engaged shafts with moulded caps on their inner faces.
The southern nave arcade, also C15, is of five bays formed of quatrefoil piers and obtuse arches.
The chancel contains a plain, square headed C14 piscina and three stalls with misericords.
There is a C17 altar table behind an early C18 communion rail, and a reredos designed by William Bassett-Smith in 1885.
The reredos incorporates a stained glass mosaic of the Last Supper by Salviati, designed by Clayton and Bell.
The church contains a set of carved and painted C17 royal arms, hung between the south aisle and south nave.
A C14 font standing on clustered shafts stands in the nave.
The church of SS Peter and Paul > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828243 is listed amongst the top 100 churches in Simon Jenkins' book "England's 1000 best parish churches". The building was created over a time span covering about 400 years and was built in a variety of styles. At the time the original church was built it was situated right by the seaside by the confluence of the Rivers Nene and Ouse. This first church, however, was a modest Norman building > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828295 that is now contained within the somewhat confusing present structure. When the church needed to be enlarged in 1250 to make room for more people it was not possible to add on to it on its west side because of the castle that stood there. Additions had to be built onto the other sides of the building, which was completed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Around 1500 the Norman west tower collapsed, damaging part of the remaining Norman structure, and a new tower, detached from the church, was built at its north-west end. The church still houses the original C13 font as well as medieval ceiling bosses and misericords in the sanctuary, and fragments of medieval stained glass > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828269 in one of its windows. A life-sized brass > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828341 commemorating Thomas de Braunstone (Constable of Wisbech Castle, d 1401) can be found on the floor and there are a great number of monuments, mainly on the chancel walls, the two perhaps most noteworthy being to Matthias and Jane Taylor (1633) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828317 and to Thomas Parke and his wife (1630) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828320. A Stuart royal arms > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828265 dating from the 1660s hangs by the south doorway. During the Victorian restoration the old seating was replaced and most stained windows > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828299 date from this time or from later.
The chancel contains a monumental brass of Thomas de Braunstone, Constable of Wisbech Castle dated 1401,
The church of SS Peter and Paul > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828243 is listed amongst the top 100 churches in Simon Jenkins' book "England's 1000 best parish churches". The building was created over a time span covering about 400 years and was built in a variety of styles. At the time the original church was built it was situated right by the seaside by the confluence of the Rivers Nene and Ouse. This first church, however, was a modest Norman building > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828295 that is now contained within the somewhat confusing present structure. When the church needed to be enlarged in 1250 to make room for more people it was not possible to add on to it on its west side because of the castle that stood there. Additions had to be built onto the other sides of the building, which was completed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Around 1500 the Norman west tower collapsed, damaging part of the remaining Norman structure, and a new tower, detached from the church, was built at its north-west end. The church still houses the original C13 font > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828346 as well as medieval ceiling bosses and misericords in the sanctuary, and fragments of medieval stained glass > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828269 in one of its windows. A life-sized brass commemorating Thomas de Braunstone (Constable of Wisbech Castle, d 1401) can be found on the floor and there are a great number of monuments, mainly on the chancel walls, the two perhaps most noteworthy being to Matthias and Jane Taylor (1633) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828317 and to Thomas Parke and his wife (1630) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828320. A Stuart royal arms > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828265 dating from the 1660s hangs by the south doorway. During the Victorian restoration the old seating was replaced and most stained windows > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828299 date from this time or from later.
two C17 memorials comprising couples on either side of prayer stands, one to Thomas Parke and Etheldreda Parke and one to Matthias Taylor and Jane Taylor A memorial plaque to those who were killed in action or died in captivity in the Far East in the Second World War is mounted on the east wall of the south aisle.
The church of SS Peter and Paul > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828243 is listed amongst the top 100 churches in Simon Jenkins' book "England's 1000 best parish churches". The building was created over a time span covering about 400 years and was built in a variety of styles. At the time the original church was built it was situated right by the seaside by the confluence of the Rivers Nene and Ouse. This first church, however, was a modest Norman building > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828295 that is now contained within the somewhat confusing present structure. When the church needed to be enlarged in 1250 to make room for more people it was not possible to add on to it on its west side because of the castle that stood there. Additions had to be built onto the other sides of the building, which was completed in the 14th and 15th centuries. Around 1500 the Norman west tower collapsed, damaging part of the remaining Norman structure, and a new tower, detached from the church, was built at its north-west end. The church still houses the original C13 font > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828346 as well as medieval ceiling bosses and misericords in the sanctuary, and fragments of medieval stained glass > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828269 in one of its windows. A life-sized brass > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828341 commemorating Thomas de Braunstone (Constable of Wisbech Castle, d 1401) can be found on the floor and there are a great number of monuments, mainly on the chancel walls, the two perhaps most noteworthy being to Matthias and Jane Taylor (1633) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828317 and to Thomas Parke and his wife (1630) > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828320. A Stuart royal arms > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828265 dating from the 1660s hangs by the south doorway. During the Victorian restoration the old seating was replaced and most stained windows > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1828299 date from this time or from later.
The plaque is a slate tablet set into an ornately carved Sicilian marble frame.
Within the carved roof is a gilt cross.