2938

 

I  

Designated  

01/03/1963  

01/02/1996  

Parish Church of St Peter  

 

Newport  

Wentlooge  

 

Peterstone  

326797  

180139  

 

Located at the centre of Peterstone village, set back from the road, opposite the Six Bells Public House.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Mid C15 church in Perpendicular style, restored in 1606 after The Great Flood, and again in 1887 by Sir George F.R. Walker Bart in memory of his wife, Fanny Henrietta, third daughter of the Baron Tredegar. The site is said to have monastic origins.  

Large, Perpendicular aisled church with three staged W tower, vestry and S porch. Constructed of coursed liassic limestone with random blocks of pink sandstone. Gabled slate roof to nave and chancel with decorative cross finials to gable ends. The nave steps up from the chancel with a steeply pitched roof. Flat roof with parapet to aisles and porch. Three-light, cusped windows with Perpendicular tracery above to aisles and tower. All C15, with some restoration. The chancel was rebuilt, and the vestry added in the late C19. The E window is three-light with debased Perpendicular tracery above. The S side of the chancel is lit by two C19 windows in Perpendicular style with a central narrow priests doorway. The N and S aisle are lit by five, three-light windows with hoodmoulds and square label stops; three to the S side and one to each end. The S aisle is supported by four equally spaced, staged buttresses, while the N aisle is supported by an angled buttress at each end. The S porch is C15, flat roofed, two storey, with crocketted finials and gargoyles beneath the parapet. The S doorway is pointed, complexly moulded with a deeply projecting hoodmould, and simple stops, beneath a relieving arch. Above is a C19 lancet with arched hoodmould over. The inner doorway is similar with large square label stops set beneath a pink and white limestone voussoired arch. Above is a simple niche set into the wall, now empty. The porch has a flat, C19 boarded roof, with embattled wallplate and transverse ribs, which spring from the wall, supported on five carved, corbel heads to each side, depicting angels, a king, grotesques and a bishop (one has been replaced). The W tower is three staged, with five staged, diagonal buttresses with crocketted pinnacles to each corner. Highly decorative West country style, crenellated parapet of blind tracery with crocketted corner finials. A carved figure of a saint (possibly one of the Apostles) is set within the central crenellation of each face of the tower. To the NE corner is an polygonal stair turret which rises above the parapet and is crenellated and decorated with matching blind tracery. The stringcourse beneath the parapet has two gargoyles set within it to each face. The stair tower has five stairlights. Louvred C15 belfry windows to each face. The S face has two C19 lancets and a single matching one to the N side. The W window is C15 with deeply projecting hoodmould and square label stops. The W doorway and window have naturalistically carved leaves to the outer reveal. Small C19 vestry on the N side of the chancel, lit on the E side.  

Fine, lofty interior in High Perpendicular style. Unusually fine four bay arcades of compound piers with complexly moulded arches and capitals decorated with a variety of naturalistic foliage including: vines, roses, foliate patterns and a green man on the central pier on the S side. The chancel arch is wide and pointed, complexly moulded, crudely hacked off on the W side to accomodate the former rood screen. Rood stair survives to the N of the pulpit with pointed, chamfered door surround and cusped piscina to right hand side. The chancel roof is a C19 pseudo hammerbeam. The flat boarded roof of the aisles also dates from this time. The nave roof is restored and of hammerbeam type, possibly C15, supported on a series of twelve timber brackets springing from the wall resting upon stone corbels in the form of carved heads, some restored (possibly depicting the twelve disciples). The tower arch is tall, narrow and complexly moulded. The pulpit is modern, the furnishings are C19 as is the three-bay pink alabaster reredos with pinnacles and crocketted finials. C15 polygonal font to W of S door, set on base decorated with blind tracery, complete with lead lining.  

Listed grade I as a rare, surviving example of a large Gwent Perpendicular church with a fine interior.