St Peter & St Paul's Church, Deddington
Deddington has quite the mighty parish church. We saw it from the castle and it piqued our interest immediately so of course we had to go and investigate. It ended up being the highlight of our time in Deddington, even though we ended up temporarily trapped in the road due to a co-op lorry getting stuck. These old village roads aren't built for lorries, why do they try!
St Peter & Paul's can be dated all the way back to the 13th century. It once had a tall steeple and bell tower, but that collapsed into the body of the church in early 1634 rendering the site useless for a couple of years as the damage was so extensive. Charles I ordered that the Diocese raise enough money to rebuild and so they did exactly that and a couple of years later they'd built it up to what we pretty much can see today. This included the gold weather vanes and the statues representing St Peter and St Paul on the west side of the existing tower. To be fair, Charles I really owed this church a favour considering he took the original six bells from the site to be made into weapons and they weren't replaced until 1791! The tower now has 8 bells, the extra two coming in 1946 as a dedication for the Deddington Home Guard with thanks from A.J Morrls.
The clock wasn't added til around 1832, it was a gift to the church by the family of William Hudson who was a local draper, this was a sort of memorial piece for him it seems. It was wound by hand until 1989 when an electric winder was placed.
To add to the mis-match of eras here, the current font is Victorian and inside the church there are also a set of wooden battlefield crosses which have been preserved from the original graves of the local men killed in the war during 1914-18. They had been re-interred by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission thus the church kept the originals as an ode to the fallen.
Otherwise the church boasts a collection of gifts presented to it for working use over the centuries like its alter and stained glass windows, not to mention some interesting memorials and dedications.
We would easily recommend the site to anyone interested in epic churches and architecture, it really is a stunning one! We were surprised that such a small village/borough would have such a big and spectacular church! Worth the visit if you're in the area for sure!
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