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St. Peter's
Church
 The
church stands impressively at the top of Market Hill and dominates the
town. This is not surprising since the siting and the design of this building
was a deliberate piece of medieval town planning conceived before the
Black Death of 1348-49. It formed the centrepiece of Elizabeth de Burgh's
town expansion soon after she gained control of her estate in 1322. The
site of the church would have been pegged out before anything else and
it is no accident that the main west doors open on to the great market
square for this was designed as a civic church for processions and guild
events. It was only after her death in 1360 that encroachments on and
around the site began to detract from the original scheme. In the sixteenth
century a Moot Hall would occupy the bottom half of the hill and remain
for 300 years.
In the 1840s all of these encroachments were removed and Elizabeth de
Burgh's original and dramatic concept recovered. The Victorians appreciated
what they had found and used the open spaces to advantage. Unfortunately
for us the overwhelming flow of modern traffic once again prevents us
from appreciating what we have, a remarkably designed medieval town centre.
On the Continent we would call it The Piazza.
It has always been said that this church was built during the years 1450-85
but we now know that this cannot be so. There were certainly at least
three stages in the building and they were probably 1330-48, 1360, 1425-50.
The
church consists of a nave and chancel, both flanked by aisles, a south
porch and a west tower. Building began with the first two bays of the
chancel, including the chancel arch, and the base of the tower. The tower
was intended to stand beyond the west end of the nave, outside the body
of the church as at All Saints and St. Gregory's but with a connecting
passage from north to south as at Dedham in Essex.
When this building was commenced the Decorated style was on its way out
and the new Perpendicular style was coming in, simplified and with the
emphasis on the vertical thrust. St. Peter's is built in a curious blend
of the two, which helps to date it. The chancel arch is exceptionally
fine with an inner moulding springing from short columns standing on brackets.
This is from the Decorated period and so are the clerestory windows in
the chancel but there is an additional pair from when the chancel was
extended and they have the late Perpendicular depressed arch. The tracery
of the windows throughout the church is highly individual and leans towards
the Decorated style, but the close-set windows, the narrow buttresses,
and the slender columns of the nave arcade are all early Perpendicular.
Finally the massive columns, which support the tower, have detail on their
bases identical to the fourteenth-century pillars at St. Gregory's.
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 Exterior
The proportions are splendid and the tower is exactly the right height
and size, built in three stages with angle buttresses and stepped battlements
with pinnacles in the form of statues. A copper clad spire of 1810, which
replaced an earlier timber spire, was removed in 1968 and there are no
plans to replace it. The south porch is two storeyed and the ground floor
was meant to be vaulted; the piers for the vault are still visible. The
exterior stonework, including the three niches, was restored in 1911 by
C.G. Hare and the three figures were inserted at the same time, they represent
Christ in the act of blessing flanked by St. Peter and St. Gregory. The
doors inside the porch as well as those on the north side are original
and well carved. Several of the windows have been faithfully restored
in recent years although the east window is a reconstruction from the
early nineteenth century. It is blocked below the transom to allow for
a classical reredos, which used to be in the chancel.
Interior
If possible one should enter through the west door beneath the tower and
if you are fortunate enough to find thefloor clear of chairs the effect
is moving and dramatic. The tower stands on three great arches so that
in effect you are immediately in the nave, which with the tower is six
bays in length. The pillars of the nave arcade are slender with four attached
shafts and moulded capitais but the detail of those on the north side
differ from those opposite which indicates a time lapse in the building.
Above the arcade is the five-bay clerestory but the windows are strangely
out of rhythm with the arches below. The roof is very much part of the
clerestory and is pitched with its five bays separated by long arch braces
supporting the tie beams. The braces spring from carved stone corbels
and there is a marvellous feeling of space. The tie beams carry short
king posts which support the ridge and an additional support and decorative
feature is the arch bracing running along the ridge from east to west.
The entire roof is ceiled and panelled with slender ribs at the intersections
of which are small gilt bosses. Finally and most effectively the cornice
is in the form of beautiful fan-shaped coving framing each window.
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This roof
is unique in a county famous for its variety of styles but doubts were
raised concerning its age from an entry in William Dowsing's diary of
1643 which states:
"St.
Peter's. We brake down pictures of God the Father, two crucifixes, and
pictures of Christ, about one hundred in all, and gave orders to take
down a cross off the steeple and diverse angels, twenty at least on
the roof of the church".
It has been
supposed that the last item implied that the nave roof was originally
a hammer beam construction but there is no evidence to support this. Close
inspection from scaffolding in 1976 revealed that the roof is basically
fifteenth-century work and that if anything had been replaced in the 1685
restoration it was some of the arch bracing. It is possible that the original
bracing was decorated with small angels.
This roof is the only medieval nave roof in Suffolk to be completely ceiled
and panelled in its original form. Fan-shaped coving appears at Framlingham
and Norwich but in both cases it disguises hammer beams; that is not the
case in Sudbury.
Above the chancel arch is what purports to be a canopy of honour to the
rood screen but it is not. It is formed from the cresting of the vanished
screen and has been much refurbished and placed here at an uncertain date.
Only part of the dado of the screen has survived but terribly repainted
in the early nineteenth century. It must have been magnificent and the
doorways from the loft remain and prove that it spanned the whole church
from north to south.
The
Aisles
The aisles are broad and form a processional route with good roofs, especially
in the north aisle which has bosses and stone corbels. The principals
are arch braced with carving in the spandrels. The windows are linked
with a continuous stone moulding and there is a good collection of nineteenth-century
stained glass. The western bays of each aisle flank the tower and were
the last extensions made to the medieval church. Because of the houses,
which encroached on the site, there are some odd angles at the western
end of the north aisle.
In the south aisle is the fifteenth-century font, octagonal with each
side carved with a cusped and pointed quatrefoil. During the religious
upheaval of the seventeenth century it was shamefully removed and used
as a horse trough but was apparently returned when the animals refused
to drink from it.
The
Chancel
The chancel was restored and decorated by Bodley in 1898 but his decoration
of the walls was removed in 1968. It consisted mainly of the repeated
motif of the crowned cross keys of St. Peter on a dark red background.
His reredos has survived, 20ft high and a little over 7ft in width in
the Gothic style and depicting the crucifixion. It replaced the classical
reredos of 1715 which consisted of a central pedimented board displaying
the Ten Commandments flanked by the two
paintings of Moses and Aaron by Robert Cardinall which hang over the north
and south doors. Cardinall was a local artist and a pupil of Sir Godfrey
Kneller.
The chancel is two bays in length with an extended sanctuary built in
two periods which accounts for the astonishing inclination to the south.
Between the bays are beautiful parclose screens from the fifteenth century
with one light divisions which have richly carved tracery heads and carved
dado. They are very similar to those in All Saints church and were once
richly decorated but were repainted several times since and were finally
stripped of all colour in the nineteenth century.
The ceiling of the chancel is original although recoloured by Bodley.
It is flat pitched, ceiled and panelled. Along the ridge are small but
detailed bosses depicting angels carrying a book, a shield and a cross.
Other bosses at the intersection of the panel ribs are in the form of
faces, flowers, leaves, etc. A beautiful roof has been astonishingly overlooked
by most of the experts including Pevsner and Munro Cautley in his magnum
opus.
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South
Chapel
The South Chapel, sometimes called the Lady Chapel, has an unusual altar
of oak and boxwood. The front is carved with the Nativity scene and the
shallow reredos shows da Vinci's Last Supper. It is an early twentieth-century
Flemish piece appreciated more in recent years than when it was first
installed. In the south wall is a large recess, which once held an image,
possibly St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers. At the base
of the pillar facing it is some interesting medieval graffiti including
a crucifixion. It could only have been carved by persons kneeling before
that image, possibly pilgrims because Sudbury was the last overnight stop
on the pilgrimage route to St. Edmundsbury.
Restorations
This church has been most fortunate in its restorations from which it
has benefited enormously. We have already seen much of Bodley's work which
was very sympathetic and enhanced an already beautiful church. However,
we owe even more to Butterfield who was engaged by Canon Molyneux in 1858-59,
a very dangerous age where restorations are concerned. Molyneux was apparently
a man of taste and discrimination and was responsible for sensitive restoration
work at Salter's Hall which was where he lived.
He seems to have exerted considerable control over Butterfield both here
and at St. Gregory's. He was also ruthless in cleansing the church of
any eighteenth century fittings and fixtures. There were formerly three
wide eighteenth-century galleries, the west one under the tower which
held the organ was erected at a cost of £66 15s 8d in 1777. Molyneux
had all three removed and on the night of 30 March 1859 he had all the
box pews taken out and sold on the Market Hill next morning. They were
replaced by simple rush-seated ladder-back chairs designed by Butterfield.
It was intended that just sufficient chairs were put out for each service
and returned to store after use leaving the church uncluttered, as it
would have been in medieval days. It was a revolutionary idea conceived
to show off the building to advantage.
The chancel floor was relaid and a new pulpit installed, both remarkably
restrained. However, the crowning achievement was the reintroduction of
stained glass to the windows. Now Victorian stained glass can be beautiful
or hideous, tactful or over sentimental, beautifully toned or garish.
The three windows from the Butterfield restoration are perfect and are
the work of Hardman, but the relationship between the two men was not
always harmonious.
When the first window was produced, the chancel east, Butterfield criticised
it for lacking 'strength and force'. Hardman, not pleased with such criticism,
inserted the second window under the tower without waiting for Butterfield's
approval of the cartoons. Butterfield was of course furious but nevertheless
commissioned a third window, the east window of the south chapel.
Towards the end of the century Hardman would be commissioned to produce
more windows but the earlier ones for Butterfield are superior.
There was another major restoration in 1968 when the tower had to be rebuilt
from the belfry level. The greater part of the cost was met by a legacy
from Mr. C.W. Worters, an ex-butcher from North Street in Sudbury. It
was a splendid gift in the true spirit of the cloth merchants who first
built the church. There were of course many other contributors and we
have every reason to be thankful to them. There was a real danger that
the tower may have been demolished and incredible though it may seem at
least one person advocated that the roofs be removed and the church be
allowed to become a ruin.
St. Peter's was declared redundant in 1972 and after standing unused for
four years was invested in the Redundant Churches Fund. It now has a new
life as a cultural and social hall though still remaining a consecrated
building. The Friends of St. Peter's, a local charitable trust, has done
much to raise funds for internal maintenance and improvements.
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The
Old Moot Hall (right), used as such before the later hall (below)
was built on Market Hill in the reign of Mary Tudor. There is some evidence
that this building continued to be used for civic purposes in the reign
of James I. His arms are painted on the chimney breast of a downstairs
chamber. It has been suggested that this was the home of Mayor Wells in
the fifteenth century but there is no evidence to support this. It is
an exceptional building and well maintained by the present owners.
The
New Moot Hall(left) is only known to us through watercolours and drawings
of the early nineteenth century. They show a double-gabled structure facing
St Peter's church of which the left hand portion appears to be an independent
shop though it may have been part of the Moot Hall originally. The gable
of the second portion was covered with a huge rendition of the Royal Arms.
Beneath is an oriel window of twelve lights filling the full width of
the facade. On the ground floor is the main door and a broad timber arch
which indicates that it may at one time have been used as a covered market.
By the nineteenth century it had been closed in and a run of lock-up shops
filled the space. A charming bell cupola crowned the gable.
There
are several good timber-framed houses but the finest are the range known
as Salter's Hall and Chantry, bestseen from the opposite side of the road.
They were mostly built around 1450 but the third gable is clearly earlier.
These are houses of extremely high quality of which Salter's Hall is the
finest. All the windows have retained their original carved wooden tracery.
Especially fine is the oriel window beneath the gable with its carved
soffit 
