Summary

St Peter’s Church 230m NNE of The Deane House

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 18 June 2014. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument includes a medieval parish church, known as St. Peter’s Church, surviving as upstanding and below-ground remains. It is situated on a ridge of high ground to the WSW of Littleton. The church is built flint rubble with stone quoins and dressings, and is now roofless. The upstanding remains include the north, south and west walls of the nave. The north and south walls survive up to about 3.8m high. They include two 12th century round-headed doorways towards the western end, as well as remains of two windows. The west gable wall survives nearly complete to about 6m high. It includes an 18th century three-light, three-centred window. The interior of the church contains an octagonal font and has several 18th century inscribed slabs to the Chudleigh family set into the floor.

St. Peter’s Church was built in the late 12th century, probably by Godfrey de Caritate. It is thought to have fallen out of use, and into ruin, in the 18th or early 19th century.

The upstanding remains are Grade II listed.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

A parish church is a building, usually of roughly rectangular outline and containing a range of furnishings and fittings appropriate to its use for Christian worship by a secular community, whose members gather in it on Sundays and on the occasion of religious festivals. Children are initiated into the Christian religion at the church's font and the dead are buried in its churchyard. Parish churches were designed for congregational worship and are generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provides accommodation for the laity, and the chancel, which is the main domain of the priest and contains the principal altar. Either or both parts are sometimes provided with aisles, giving additional accommodation or spaces for additional altars. Most parish churches also possess towers, generally at the west end, but central towers at the crossing of nave and chancel are not uncommon and some churches have a free-standing or irregularly sited tower. Many parish churches also possess transepts at the crossing of chancel and nave, and south or north porches are also common. The main periods of parish church foundation were in the 10th to 11th and 19th centuries. Most medieval churches were rebuilt and modified on a number of occasions and hence the visible fabric of the church will be of several different dates, with in some cases little fabric of the first church being still easily visible.

Despite damage to the east end by landscaping in the past, St Peter’s Church survives well with a considerable amount of upstanding medieval fabric. It includes some well preserved architectural details such as the 12th century round-headed doorways. The site is relatively undisturbed and has a high degree of potential for archaeological investigation. It will contain below-ground archaeological and environmental information relating to the use and history of the church.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Hampshire HER 23668. NMR SU43SW3. PastScape 231850. LBS 145927,
OS maps (1:2500): 1871, 1896, 1910, 1932 ,

Source: Historic England