The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1911-11-07
ST. PETERS CHURCH
14TH CENTURY DESIGN
Fine Example Of Old English
Parish Church Architecture.

Edward O. Keasbey, of this town,
has written an interesting description
of st. Peters church. The article
was published in the Hospital Re
view from which the following ex-
cerpts were taken:-
1.-THE building is one of the best
examples in this country of the arcni-
lecture of the English parish church
Of the fourteenth and fifteenth CEN
turies, and in view of the recent
service of conservation it may be well
to refer to some of the dlstlnctlve
features of the building. 1t is in the
villages and smaller towns OF england
rather than. in the cities that one
sees churches OF the type tnat Is
represented by St. Peters. There a-e
in England many different types OF
churches. In Northamptonshire, Glou-
cestersh.re and Somerset may be seel
churches with tall, tapering spires
In Sussex there are short and mass
i've towers, usually crowned With
short srire. There is g very lofty
spire upon flat rooted cEurch IN
Newark upon-Trent after which. our
owr Newark was named. Scattered
all through England, and for the mos
part in out-of-the-way villages and IN
small towns, are churches with mass
i've buttressed towers, some short
and some tall, and having upon one
corner a turret resting upon the
ground and extending above the
groined roof of the tower. The body
of such church is long and low.
There are no transepts, but only
porches and chapels. In the carrier
buildings the roof is pointed, but in
the fifteenth century the pointed roof
was in many cases removed and
flatter one put on. The roof of the
nave rests upon the walls of the clere-
story, reaching up above the roofs OF
the aisles. Sometimes the tower ex-
tends but one stage above the roof,
and again it rises two or three stages
above it. There are later and still
more lofty towers that are decorated
with mouldings and traceried windows
and surmounted with pinnacles. 1t is
the massive and buttressed tower OF
two stages of the fourteenth century
village church that is represente1 IN
the tower of st. Peters. The roof
of the tower is battlemented and with
out pinnacles, and upon the turret in
the corner is a tall pole bearing
weathercock, as there Is III nearly
every English church having tower
and not spire. A stone cross stands
on the gable of the chancel and OF
each of the side porches OF st.
Peters.
''There is no church in England
from which st. Peters is copied, and
there is none that it very closely re-
sembles, and yet there is scarcely
feature of it that may not be dis
covered in one or another of the
English churches of the class to which
it belongs. For strength, dignity and
proportion the tower is not excelled
by any English tower of similar char
acter. Among churches that most
closely resemble st. Peters may be
mentioned the Parish church at Blyth
burgh. Suffolk, st. Peter-ad Vincula,
Coggeshall, st. Chad's at Lichfieid'
the parish church at Great Brington,
st. Mary's Eastbourne, Battle church
IN Sussex, and a little church at
Castle Asby, but they are all quite
different from one another and from
st. Peters, and in none of them is
the tower SO massive and SO impos-
ing. There is another church much
larger than st. Peters which has
many points of resemblance. Thls
is St. Botolph's in Boston. 1t was
from window in this chanceI that
the flowing traceries of st. Peters
chancel window were taken, but in
St Peters the effect is improved by
the transverse division of the win
dow into upper and lower lights. st.
Botolph's has nave and four alsles
and a lofty roof and the tower is
crowned with lantern and is two
hundred and seventy-two feet in
height. more than twice that of st.
Peters. There is in the tower OF
that church near the North Sea a
suggestion of the influence of Belgium
and the flowing traceries OF st.
Botolph's. which are found also in
the chancel and the tower windows
of st. Peters, were suggested by
French churches of the fifteenth CEN
tury, and there are few such to be
found III England The graceful
tower window in st. Peters has some
resemblance to a window in the
Church of ST. Jean at Caen. Nor
mandy.
''The windows in the aisles of St.
Peters are not like those in any of
the large churches mentioned above.
They are not the conventional pointed
windows of either the Decorated or
the later Perpendicular period, but
are rather the simple form of win
dows that are found in many little
village churches. The three windows
in each side show three different