Description

MONK SOHAM SCHOOL ROAD (off)
TM 26 NW
2/156 Church of St Peter
29.7.55
- I

Parish church. Medieval, restored 1860. Nave, chancel, west tower, south
porch. Flint rubble with stone dressings; nave heightened in red brick. The
chancel is rendered and there is remains of render to the nave and upper half
of the tower. Slated roofs. Early C14 square tower in 2 stages;.crenellated
parapet decorated with chequer-pattern flushwork. 3-stage diagonal buttresses
to west. Moulded west doorway. Lancet windows to ground floor (north and
south) and at ringing chamber level (north, south and west). 2-light belfry
openings, that to the south with more elaborate tracery. Nave walls are
substantially early C14, with contemporary moulded north and south doorways.
In C15 the walls were heightened and 3-light windows inserted, 3 to each side.
C15 porch, formerly of high quality but much of the decorative work now lost
or badly decayed. Entrance arch is enriched with fleurons, shields and crowns
on both outer and inner faces; enriched hoodmould on mask stops, the spandrels
formerly carved. 3 empty canopied niches above and to each side of the
entrance. Front has remains of complete flushwork panelling. Embattled red
brick parapet. Early C14 chancel has unaltered fenestration: regularly-spaced
lancet windows with pointed trefoil heads, 3 to south, 4 to north. Unmoulded
Priest's doorway. Very large east window of 5 lights with cusped intersecting
tracery, said to be from Bury St Edmunds abbey. Interior. Nave has C15 8-bay
arch-braced roof with false hammerbeams; short king-posts above the collars;
the braces, purlins and ridge piece are all moulded. Enriched cornice,
continued onto the hammerbeams. At the east end is the rood beam, enriched
with moulding and brattishing. Chancel roof ceiled over; C19 wallplate. The
chancel windows have internal hoodmoulds, linked together to form a continuous
string course around the walls. Remains of canopied piscina in chancel, cut
off flush with the wall; the credence shelf survives. Another piscina in the
nave. East splay of south east nave window has a C15 canopied image niche. A
simpler niche immediately west of the north nave doorway. Rood stair in north
east nave, with doorways above and below. C15 octagonal font, the bowl panels
carved with the Seven Sacraments and the crucifixion; against the base are
seated figures and the Signs of the Evangelists. All the carving is defaced.
Restored pulpit, dated 1604. 13 medieval benches with poppyhead ends at west
end of nave. Other seating is later C19. Tower screen incorporates C14
tracery, perhaps from a former rood screen. Large C14 iron-bound chest in
nave. In the base of the tower is a solid-tread stair to the ringing chamber;
this is probably original and a rare survival.

Listing NGR: TM2136265083

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17525518

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings