St Peter & St Paul, Gosberton

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a Grade I parish church on Westhorpe Road in Gosberton, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln. Its crossing tower and crocketed spire are among the loftiest in the Fens.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church of the twelfth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, restored in 1896, in squared limestone rubble and ashlar with lead roofs. The plan is a clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch, transepts, chancel, south chapel and a crossing tower with spire. The nave is battlemented, with crocketed pinnacles and a latticed frieze. A large five-light fifteenth-century west window has panel tracery and a brattished transom. The fourteenth-century crossing tower has an embattled parapet, angle pinnacles and a set-back crocketed spire with three tiers of lucarnes. Clerestory windows are two-light with triangular heads. Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer notes Norman arch jambs in the north transept and Norman arcade bases found in 1896; the chancel was largely rebuilt and extended in that restoration.

Inside, early fifteenth-century four-bay nave arcades have double-moulded pointed arches. Four fifteenth-century tower arches have octagonal responds; the crossing is lierne-vaulted. A two-bay thirteenth-century arcade opens from the chancel to the south chapel, which has fourteenth-century sedilia and piscina and a fifteenth-century screen. The octagonal font is fourteenth century on a nineteenth-century stem. In the south transept recumbent effigies of a knight and lady lie on a chest tomb. South Holland Heritage records a spire 176 feet from ground to tip and Norman remains visible through trapdoors in the floor.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1064425
• South Holland Heritage: Gosberton church