Visitors book inside St Peter & St Paul's church, Preston Capes. Started in June 2006.
"THE CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL
About ten yards to the south east of the Church porch stands what is believed to be the Anglo-Saxon stone base of the preaching cross which preceded the first Church building. What may be the head of that cross (with a round head carved with an eight starred cross) is built into the external east wall of the south aisle below the window. Also of interest on that wall is a Georgian grave stone affixed for an unknown reason high up on a ledge.
The Church (which, including the tower almost up to the battlements, was covered with ivy in the nineteenth century), is dedicated, like Peterborough Cathedral, to St Peter and St Paul. The earliest part, including the round Norman pillars in the south aisle, dates from the early 1200's. This would probably coincide with the grant of a licence by the Prior of Daventry to Hugh de Leycester to build a chapel at Preston Capes. The north aisle and several decorated aisle windows date from 1300- 1350. The corbel heads on the nave arches are all kings' heads, but the chancel corbels are rather more grotesque. The perpendicular tower was built later as shown by the fact that both aisles each have only a half arch nearest the tower. The ground falls away sharply to the west of the tower and it was therefore necessary to build the tower into the existing Church rather than extend it to the west. The wooden rooves of the two aisles are medieval but the wooden roof of the nave was renewed in the early part of the present century. The chancel probably also dates from 1300-1350 although its roof was raised from a flat roof in 1853 when the Church was restored.
The pews in the chancel (which have traceried panels and poppyhead benchends) are medieval. Fortunately in the restoration in 1853 the pews in the nave were copied from the chancel pews, while the pulpit, priest's desk, clerk's desk and lectern were all designed in the same style. The poppyhead pew end at the south west and of the north nave pews has the Knightley coat of arms of Sir Valentine,_the Rector at the time of the 1853 restoration. Either side of the chancel east window are Georgian wooden tablets (with simulated marble surrounds and gilded urns) with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments inscribed thereon. In a vestry are an old charity board and an old royal coat of arms which it is hoped will be restored and rehung in the Church. The fifteenth century stone font is built into a pillar in the south aisle and has traceried panels. In the porch is a medieval stone holy water stoup. The Church door is believed to be over 450 years old. Of the five bells, four date from 1671 and the treble from 1829. The organ, built by Nicholsons of Worcester, was given in memory of Sir Valentine Knightley and was electrified and moved from the chancel to its present position in 1974. The Church electric lighting was installed by his parents in memory of John Henry Wilcox RAFVR who was killed in the War in 1942.
The tracery at the top of the chancel east window is all that remains of a Victorian stained glass window installed in 1853 but replaced sometime later by a plain opaque window. This in turn was replaced in 1974 by a window engraved by Annabel Rathbone in memory of George St John Ravenshear who died in 1972 at the age of ten and whose face appears as that of St George. The window was given by his relations and friends, including the Right Honourable Norman St John-Stevas MP sometime Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Included in the design are St Peter and St Paul, the Greek Chirho (g), which was an early symbol of Christ, and a peacock, which was used over Christian tombs in the catacombs as a symbol of everlasting life and the Eucharist, as its flesh was considered incorruptible. There are also included three biblical trees which are found in the vicinity of the Church, a cedar of Lebanon, a Cypress tree and an olive tree. In their branches may be observed owls, doves, peacocks and other birds while beneath can be seen deer (symbols of meditation), sheep, lambs, rabbits, a hedgehog and a beetle. On the left is the heavenly city of Jerusalem. In the centre at the bottom is St George (the patron saint of England) and the Dragon. In the window are angels and at the top hover seraphim. At the foot ts- a primrose, the favourite flower of Mr Disraeli, later Earl of Beaconsfield.
Several of the other windows are unusual early Victorian harlequin windows with various coloured glass patterns. The tracery in the north aisle east window and the loose panel in the south aisle east window (removed as dangerous by an architect in the 1960's) date from 1853.
The Church lacks any monuments of distinction other than that of a former Rector, The Reverend Knightley Adams, who married the only child of Richard Newton, Principal and Founder of Hertford College, Oxford. The floor of the nave is composed of tombstones, primarily of the Butler family of the late 1600's and early 1700's and of The Reverend Knightley Adams' mother and sisters. Several are made of the local Byfield Jurassic black marble which is very similar to Purbeck marble. In the Churchyard to the north and east of the Church are several interesting eighteenth century gravestones some carved with cherubs' heads."
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