More information : [TQ 5227 6159] Church of St Peter & St Paul [NAT] (1)
St Peter and St Paul's Shoreham, was built temp Edward III. (2)
Twelfth cent and later. (Visual inspection and church notice). In normal use. (3)
Church of St Peter and St Paul, Church Street (N side). Grade B. Parish church. The present church was built during the reign of Edward III on site of previous church. The west end tower of flint rubble with red brick quoins and dressings to windows was built in 1775 to replace previous tower destroyed by fire. The rood screen is the most interesting feature of the church. It is the most perfectly preserved screen in the county and retains the original vaulting to support the rood loft. Very good south porch of timber with tracery.
Other interesting features are the pulpit and organ case, both of which were at one time at Westminster Abbey and were brought to Shoreham in the early C19. Octagonal Tudor font cover. The rest of the church is in the main Perpendicular with very good arcade of 6 arches between nave and south aisles.Wall and Lych Gate to Church of St Peter & St Paul, Church Strteet (N side), Shoreham. Grade II. Flint rubble wall of early C19, with picturesque lych gate of 1862. (4)
St Peter and St Paul. Largely late Perpendicular. Nave and chancel in one. South aisle and south chancel chapel, with a continuous arcade on piers of four shafts and four hollows. Timber south porch. This maybe Late Perpendicular too, though the corner posts are vast, so vast that the doorway spandrels are carved out of the solid. Early English tower arch and, inside the tower, parts of two windows in the W doorway. Early Decorated N wall. The short N chapel Early Perpendicular. In 1956-7 the foundations of the Norman chancel were found under the nave. Large W tower of c1775. The church was drastically restored in 1864 by Woodyer, who rebuilt the chancel and added the NE vestry. Rood screen - a unique survival for Kent in that it extends the full width of the church and keeps its loft, coved to both W and E. Of the Devon type, though plain by Devon standards. Justone band of vine trail and cresting. The tracery is almost all modern. (5)
The church of St's Peter and Paul, Shoreham. The name of the parish is included in the list of churches in the Textus Roffensis, but there are no architectural evidences of a pre-Conquest church. It was more likely of wood. There is likewise no definite indication of the church that followed it in the C12th. The earliest architectural evidence is of the late C12th, the arch from the nave to the western tower.
Records speak of building operations in 1485, 1567,1575, 1581. In 1601 the chancel was in a ruinous state, as it was also in 1774 and repairs were carried out in 1775 (tower), 1863 (vestry), 1928 and recently.
See illustration card for plan. (6)
Shoreham church was excavated between 1956 and 1958 revealing footings of walls of the Norman chancel. Excavations were also carried out
around the base of the tower exterior, revealing the late C12th
remains of the former tower. There was also evidence of a C14th or
C15th diagonal buttress at the south western angle, and a possible
right angled buttress at the E end of the N side. The nave was
extended in the C14th, and remains of the C14th chancel arch were
found. A copy of the full report on the excavations is available from
the KAS library. (7)
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