SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, KINGS SUTTON, NORTHANTS
Typically of villages in the region of Banbury, Kings Sutton has numerous ironstone buildings, including thatched cottages. Over it all presides the late 14th c. tower and spire of the parish church, 198 feet of it – a strong contender for being the finest in the county (and that is saying something). Just admire the slender flying buttresses connecting pinnacles at the corners of the tower to the spire, and the lucarnes, large at the bottom and small at the top.
At a glance, the church all looks late-mediaeval. There is some splendid Dec. window tracery, especially the E window of the S aisle, and some reticulated tracery under unusual ogee heads in the chancel windows, but raise your eyes, the chancel has a Norman corbel table. The church was repewed in 1842, with poppyheads, but then the interior was restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1866, retaining a lot of interest. Scott’s hand is seen in much of the details of the chancel and in the roodscreen. Some of the stonework of the arcades remains from the Norman building, and there’s 12th c. arcading both sides of the chancel. The most striking thing in the chancel, though, is the monument to Thomas Langton Freke (d. 1869) high on the S. wall. Attributed to John Bacon the elder, it shows a resurrected Christ triumphing over a skeleton, representing Death. It’s not in the usual stone but in plaster.
The very plain round Romanesque font bowl was discovered under a mound of earth in the churchyard and restored to use. It postdates the 7th c. legend of Rumbold, said to have been born here, a new-born child who declared his faith as a Christian, asked to be baptised, preached a sermon and died on his third day.
Map Reference: SP497361
Simon Cotton