Summary
A parish church which originated as the C12 nave of the church for the Augustinian priory at Dunstable, with several important later phases of construction and restoration.
Reasons for Designation
The Priory Church of St Peter, Dunstable, a building of exceptional architectural and historic interest, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Historic Interest:
* for its origins as the nave of the C12 Augustinian Priory church at Dunstable;
* for its many phases of construction and change throughout the centuries;
* as the place where, in 1533, Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled, a key event in the history of the nation.
Architectural Interest:
* for the fabric surviving from its origins as the nave of the Priory Church;
* for the quality of medieval architecture including work in the Romanesque, Early English and Perpendicular styles;
* for a number of high-quality monuments particularly those dating from the early C18;
* for the important changes made by the eminent C19 architects George Somers Clarke between 1848 and 1878 and Bodley and Garner between 1890 and 1903.
Group Value:
* for the strong functional group value it shares with the scheduled remains of the Augustinian priory, the Grade I listed Abbey Gateway and the Grade II* listed Priory House.
History
Dunstable stands at the crossroads of Watling Street and the Icknield Way, ancient routes of communication that created the economic underpinnings of the town. By the 1100s a planned market town had been established, with (1123) a royal residence and (sometime before 1125) an Augustinian abbey founded by Henry I. Dunstable Priory, the new monastic foundation, would dominate the town for much of the Middle Ages, with a large priory complex and cathedral-sized church. The priory profited from and developed the English wool trade so that the market at Dunstable reached a point of considerable regional significance. In the Early Modern period Dunstable became an important staging post on coaching routes to and from London. Although the development of railway travel undermined its prosperity in the mid-C19, the town established itself as a specialist centre for straw hat and bonnet making in tandem with the growth of Luton’s hat-making industry.
The Church of St Peter originated in the early C12 when the priory was founded. The church was dedicated later, in 1213, by Hugh of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln.
Modifications and additions were made throughout the centuries, including early on when in 1222 it is recorded that the west end was damaged and two west towers collapsed in a storm. Archaeological evidence shows that the abbey church was originally more than twice its current length, with a crossing and an apsidal east end with an ambulatory (so that visitors could view relics without disturbing the monks at prayer). The east end of the apse lead into the equally long rectangular Lady Chapel. The whole building would have been cathedral-sized and very impressive.
From 1392 the people of Dunstable were permitted to make parochial use of the nave. Two doorways were formed in the space between the nave and the crossing (still extant in what is now the east wall).
A number of changes were made in the C15 including the lowering of the nave roof and removal of the clerestory, and the glazing of the triforium. The north aisle was built. The north-west tower was added and the south-west buttress, and a much smaller doorway was formed within the C12 portal to the west end.
In May 1533 the Lady Chapel was the site where the court sat to officially annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a pivotal event in the history of the nation that would lead to the English reformation.
As a parish church, the nave survived the dissolution of the monasteries, but the Priory surrendered in January 1540. The east end was destroyed and the stone plundered over the years. No standing remains of the east end survive, but survey techniques have shown that their buried remains survive. These are part of the scheduled monument of Dunstable Priory (NHLE 1004676, scheduled in 1948).
The next major changes to the remaining building came in the C19 in separate phases by architect George Somers Leigh Clarke between 1848 and 1878, and then by Bodley and Garner (George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner) between 1890 and 1903. Clarke rebuilt the C12 south aisle in 1852, and in 1876 he rebuilt the C15 north aisle, including adding a new seventh bay at the north east corner to form the vestry. Whilst rebuilding the north aisle, Clarke discovered and restored a C12 doorway. Bodley and Garner carried out some restoration work to the east end in 1890-91, which included revealing two C14 doorways and two niches in the east wall and returning the rood screen to its original position. In 1903 Bodley restored the west front and installed an internal buttress to support the tower.
In 1913 a new organ by Norman and Beard was installed to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Priory’s dedication by Hugh of Wells. The tower and south-west buttress were repaired in 1930 under the direction of the architect Sir Albert Richardson. The east end wall (formerly the division between nave and crossing) was mostly rebuilt in 1962, to the designs of architect Felix James Lander (1897-1960) and carried out posthumously by his son Sean Lander. Much stained glass in the building was commissioned between 1962 and 1989 from the artists Christopher Webb and John Hayward.
Details
A parish church, formerly the nave of a larger, monastic church. C12 and C13 with later phases up to the C20, including comprehensive restorations in the C19 by George Somers Clarke and by Bodley and Garner.
Materials: Totternhoe stone, with some areas of Caen stone, clunch, flint and red brick.
Plan: The building has a Basilican plan.
Exterior:
The West Front has three bays and two stories, with the tower at its north side. There is a large central Romanesque portal with four archivolts and decorative carving. The portal is infilled with a C15 door. To the north (left) is an Early English portal with four archivolts. Between the two portals is a blind Early English arch with Romanesque blind arcading beneath it. Above this are seven bays of blind arcading with plinths for statues, and above this a gallery with, a six-bay arcade with clustered columns and curvilinear tracery. Above this are five smaller bays of blind arcading with pointed arches. To the south (right) above the Romanesque portal are two lancets with hood moulds and between them a gothic arched niche with curvilinear tracery. There is a crenelated parapet.
There is a C15 Tower at the north-west corner, of four storeys articulated by string courses. The north face of the tower has a two-stage buttress up to the third storey, and each face has paired windows in the fourth storey. The upper stages are faced in chequered clunch and flint. The north face has a clock on the third storey. The tower and stair turret have a crenelated parapet.
The North Aisle, which was restored in 1876 by George Somers Clarke, has six bays, five of which are articulated by large, three-light cinquefoiled windows with, in a Perpendicular style, three-stage buttresses between them. The aisle has a crenelated parapet. The northernmost bay contains a Norman portal with three archivolts, containing doors with elaborate strapwork hinges. The portal was said to have been uncovered and much restored by Clarke.
The East wall is largely of C20 red brick but contains two blind arches containing the remains of original, shallow-arched portals. The upper storey contains two three-light windows in a Perpendicular style.
The South Aisle (rebuilt by George Somers Clarke in 1852) has a flat roof and seven bays articulated by small windows of Romanesque style, with a similar window in the return at the eastern end. On the south-west corner is a three-stage buttress and hexagonal turret, with a small, crenelated upper stage. There is a small, three stage square tower linked to the buttress with brickwork in red brick.
Interior:
The nave is wide, with seven bays articulated by the original C12 arcading. There is a north and south aisle also of seven bays each (though the tower fills the north-west bay, and the vestry fills the north-east bay).
Each bay of the nave is formed from wide piers with a profile resembling a cross with columns between each angle. The arches are rounded, springing from cushion capitals, and have chevron decoration. At triforium level each bay has a shorter, round arch with three archivolts, containing a three-light window with quatrefoils to form a clerestory. The two eastern bays of the clerestory are part of the C12 triforium, the others are from the 1852 rebuild by George Somers Clarke.
The nave ceiling is open to the shallow-pitched roof structure and is of wooden panelling with square bosses and tie beams with tracery by Clarke.
Each bay of the south aisle is formed of Romanesque style quadripartite vaulting. The two easternmost bays are used as the Lady Chapel.
The north aisle has a timber ceiling. The former external east window is unglazed and divides the rest of the north aisle from the vestry. There are C21 kitchen fittings in the bay next to the tower.
The east end is partitioned by the carved wooden rood screen, reported to date from 1392, but restored to its original position in 1890 by Bodley and Garner. It has five cusped, ogee-headed arches, with Perpendicular openings in the spandrels. The choir stalls in the east end date from the C19. The pulpit is red marble and was installed in 1880. The east end wall contains two pointed-arched blocked doorways remaining from the building’s monastic use, and three Gothic-canopied niches with plinths for statues (inserted during the rebuilding of the wall in 1962). The organ is by Norman and Beard and dates from 1913.
The West end contains a late-C20 glass internal porch. There is a gallery formed from seven pointed arches with slender clustered shafts. The gallery provides admittance to the north-west tower and south-west turret.
The font lies by the north door and is a C19 rebuild of a Norman font, with fluting to the base and decorative motifs to the upper section including Celtic knots.
There are numerous monuments of high quality throughout the building, including several dating from the C18. Near the south-west corner is a war memorial plaque commemorating the fallen of the South African War 1899-1902.
Most of the stained-glass windows are by the C20 artist John Hayward (1929-2007).
