St. Peter, Bushley, Worcestershire

Description

The church of St. Peter is a cruciform building of stone, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, rebuilt in 1843, under the direction of Mr. Blore, at a cost of £5,000 given by the Rev. Canon Dowdeswell, of Christ Church, Oxford, and consists of chancel with south chapel, nave, transepts and a western tower with pinnacles and spire, containing a clock and 6 bells: the base of the tower forms a west porch: the chancel, erected in 1857, at the expense of the late William Dowdeswell esq. from designs by the late Sir George Gilbert Scott R.A. replaces a shallow quasi-chancel previously projecting from the east end, and is a spacious and dignified structure in the Decorated style of the 14th century; the chancel screen is of iron: the reredos, presented in 1902, is a memorial to Mrs. Dowdeswell: the roof and seats are finely carved in solid oak, and there are some good stained windows, including one in the south transept to William Dowdeswell esq. d. 1887, and a fine monument, erected in 1777, to the Right Hon. William Dowdeswell, Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1765-6, who died at Nice in 1775; the epitaph was written by Edmund Burke; there are other memorials to Roger Dowdeswell, 1633; Richard Dowdeswell, 1673; William Dowdeswell, 1683; George Dowdeswell M.D. 1773; and others of this family, including a modern brass to the Rev. Dr. Dowdeswell, who died in 1849: there remains one ancient brass, with effigies of a man and woman, to Thomas Payne, ob. 1500: the communion plate includes a flagon, bearing the arms of the Dowdeswell family, given by Mrs. Elizabeth Dowdeswell in 1723: the church affords sittings for 184 persons.

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1538.