St Peter and St Paul's Church is the parish church of Drax, North Yorkshire, a village in England.
The church was founded during the reign of Henry I of England by William Paynel, who also founded Drax Priory.[1] It was expanded in 1230, for Letticia, Baroness of Drax. In the 14th century, the north aisle was widened, with a chapel added. There were further additions in the 15th and 16th centuries, and again in the 19th century.[2] It was restored in the 1930s, by Charles Nicholson.[3] The church was grade I listed in 1986.[2]
The church has a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a south porch, a chancel with a north vestry, and a west steeple. The steeple has a tower with three stages, quoins, bands, lancet windows, trefoil openings, two-light bell openings, a corbel table with gargoyles on the angles, and a recessed octagonal spire. The clerestory contains Perpendicular windows, continuous hood moulds, gargoyles, and decorated embattled parapets. The porch is gabled, and contains an opening with a pointed arch, and seven re-set corbel heads, a moulded hood on foliate capitals and chamfered jambs.[2][4] The reset figures are said to have come from Drax Priory.[5] Inside the church is a 12th-century tub font, a piscina, carved bench ends from the 1540s, a late 17th-century altar rail, and several 18th-century memorials.[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Page, William (1974). A History of the County of York: Volume 3. London: Victoria County History. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ a b c d Historic England. "Church of St Peter and St Paul (1148397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ "Parish records of Drax" (PDF). University of York. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
- ^ Harman, Ruth; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2017), Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-22468-9
- ^ "St Peter and St Paul, Drax, Yorkshire, West Riding". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 21 July 2024.