A church at the heart of the town
The parish church of St Peter and St Paul stands just south of the Market Place, reached along the short lane called Church Street. Wantage had a church long before the present building: Domesday Book (1086) records its church, two parts of which had been held before the Conquest by Bishop Peter of Lichfield, and Henry I later granted it to the Norman abbey of Bec. A fragment of a Saxon cross shaft carved with knotwork, now kept in the south porch, is the oldest carved stone in the building.
How the building grew
The oldest standing work is 13th century. At that time a large cross-shaped church with a central tower and an aisled nave was built; the four tower arches and the west walls of both transepts survive from it. The nave arcades were rebuilt in the 14th century, and in the 15th century the chancel was largely rebuilt with chapels on both sides, the transepts were altered, and a clerestory and a fine hammer-beam roof were added to the nave.
By the 19th century the church needed work. George Edmund Street, who also worked for the vicar William John Butler, restored it in 1857, and in 1877 William Butterfield lengthened the nave by one bay to the west and moved the south porch. Both architects also worked for the Community of St Mary the Virgin, which Butler founded in the town.
What to look for
- The 15th-century choir stalls, with carved poppy-heads and misericords, and the parclose screens between chancel and chapels.
- The altar tomb with alabaster effigies of Sir William Fitzwaryn, Knight of the Garter (died 1361), and his wife Amice. The Fitzwaryns were lords of the manor of Wantage.
- A group of brasses, including a half-length priest of about 1330, a full-length armoured figure of Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn (died 1414), and brasses to William Wilmot (died 1618) and to Walter Talbot (died 1522) and his two wives.
- The 14th-century font and an 18th-century brass chandelier in the nave.
Until the middle of the 19th century the churchyard also held the town’s schools, including the old grammar school in the former chapel of St Mary. When King Alfred’s Grammar School was refounded in 1850, a much-restored Norman doorway from that chapel was reset in Street’s new school building on the Portway.
Visiting
The church is a working parish church. The churchyard, with its listed Victorian lamp posts and chest tombs, is open to walk through; for opening of the church itself, check the parish’s own notices. There is no dedicated parking; use the town car parks.
Nearby
The Vale and Downland Museum faces the church across Church Street, and King Alfred’s statue is a short walk north. The Betjeman Millennium Park lies just beyond the church beside the Letcombe Brook.