Hook Norton : St Peter

St. Peter’s church was first registered in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 922 AD. The present building is of Norman origin but also has Early English, Decorated Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic features.

About this church

The Chancel dates back to the 12th Century. The Norman font is 11th century and is unusual in featuring pagan signs of the Zodiac. There have been many additions many dating back to the 15th and 16th Centuries, including an impressive tower which has a ring of 8 bells. There are a number of Medieval wall paintings including saints, angels and the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. St. Peter’s also houses the village’s original fire engine, known as ‘The Sentinel’, which was last used in 1896

Romanesque chancel and north transept. Late C12 Transitional south transept and south aisle. Nave and north aisle EE/DEC. C14 Perpendicular clerestory and west tower. Porch rebuilt in 1825. Regular ironstone rubble and ashlar with lead roof. Nave, chancel, north transept, north aisle, south transept continuous with south aisle, west tower, south porch. Chancel has 2 round-headed Romanesque windows with hood moulds and stops in both north and south walls. 2-light Decorated windows in north aisle. Chancel: East window curvilinear. Windows of south aisle: intersecting tracery and a form of curvilinear tracery with triangular shapes in heads.

Perp. north window in north transept; Perp. clerestory with 5-light window over chancel arch. West tower of 4 stages with embattled parapet, 8 pinnacles and gargoyles; west doorway with square hood mould with quatrefoils in spandrels. Pilaster buttresses and string course to Romanesque chancel. Blocked doorways in east wall of north transept; south wall of chancel and north wall of north aisle. Latter includes blocked jambs, imposts and tympanum of a Romanesque doorway. South doorway E.E. with two orders of roll moulding and jamb shafts and capitals carved with bunched leaves. Interior: Nave has blocked staircase to rood; north arcade of 3 bays with short octagonal piers and double- chamfered arches. 4th bay later with high arch to transept. South aisle has tall octagonal piers and Perp. east bay opening to transept. East chancel arch has imposts of earlier arch.

Chancel contains double piscina and 2-seat sedilia in south wall; round-headed niche in east wall and another in north wall formerly doorway. Fittings: Romanesque font with carved figures including Adam and Eve and the signs of the zodiac. Pulpit 1882. Wall paintings: C15 over chancel arch and C14 fragment over south arcade. Stained glass: east window 1881 by Ward and Hughes; south aisle east window possibly by Morris. Monuments: north transept to John Croker dated 1568, to Anne wife of Thomas Wise 1703, part of Elizabethan tomb and large stone with matrix. Nave has memorials and floor stone to family of Lampet 1781 – 1858. (Buildings of England : Oxfordshire, 1974 p.651; Chambers, R.A. – Hook Norton: All Saints Church, Oxford Archaeological Unit Annual Report 1982, p130).

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