St. Peter's Church, Petersfield, Hampshire

We started out for a walk in the park with our little charge, Paddy, but the weather didn't cooperate so we decided to ride to Petersfield in Hampshire to have a look about and see if we need to spend more time here. Short answer: yes we do.

While here, we walked to the church on the edge of the central square, St. Peter's.



It is believed that the first church on this site predates the town and was possibly founded by Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror.

In any event, this church started as a chapel-of-ease, a place for the locals to worship when it was too difficult to get to the main church. It seems this place was separated from the manor of West Mapledurham  by swamps and marshes and was used to save folks a trek.

It began to take its current shape in the 12th century and was mostly done by the 15th century. There were major renovations in 1873 and again 1998-99. 

The font dates from the 15th century. It seems it was replaced in 1873 and the original lay in the churchyard until it was restored in 1943.

The altar is simple and elegant.

Outside, placed all around the church, are old gravestones. Most of them are reduced to blank piece of stone with the weathering over the centuries, but there are a few with remnants of the original glory left.

The rest tell you where the writing on the stone was carved, but nothing of the story told there remains.

The back (side?) door to the church tells its own story with the wrought hinges, Romanesque door, and carefully fitted stonework.

I found the rectangular downspouts to be interesting. Don't see many of them in this design.

On the edge of the square, in front of the church is this old phone box that has been repurposed to be a place to find a defibrillator. Somehow this seems to be the most English thing I've seen in awhile. You'd think they'd at least put a little effort into restoring the phone box to stand up vertically.