St Peter's Church, Sandwich

The church is constructed in a mixture of materials, including pebbles, stone rubble, and brick. The roofs are tiled. Its plan consists of a nave, a central tower, a chancel, and a north aisle which stretches for almost the whole length of the church. At the southeast of the church is a two-storey vestry. There is a ruined vestry at the east end of the aisle. The tower is in three stages. The upper two stages, built after the collapse of 1661, contain round-headed windows and bell openings, and clock faces. The parapet is embattled, and on top of the tower is a square domed cupola. On the south side of the bottom stage of the tower is a 17th-century window. Below this is the blocked south tower arch containing a blocked 17th-century window. On the south side of the nave and chancel are more blocked arches. Above the blocked arches in the nave is the 13th-century clerestory the contain paired lights. Protruding from the chancel is the south vestry, with a curved Dutch gable dating from the middle of the 16th century. This contains square 16th-century windows. The undercroft under the vestry, which is only partly below ground, is lit by two 13th-century openings. The east window dates from the 14th century, and is Decorated in style. There are further Decorated windows in the north aisle, and other windows dating from the 17th or 18th centuries. The north porch has an embattled parapet, and dates from the 15th century. This leads to a 14th-century door. The west door dates from the 19th century, and is in Decorated style.[1]

The interior of St Peter's Church

Between the nave and the north aisle is a three-bay arcade, and between the chancel and the aisle is a two-bay arcade; both are carried on polygonal piers. In the chancel is a three-seat sedilia, which dates from the 13th century, and a piscina. There is a blocked squint in the sedilia, and another in the north chapel. Also present in the church are the royal arms of Charles II. In the north aisle are a number of late 14th-century tomb recesses.[1] The organ is small, having a single manual, four stops, and 173 pipes. It incorporates pipes taken from an earlier organ that was built in about 1880 by Charles H. Hobday, and was installed in the north aisle in 1895. It has since been rebuilt and now stands in the nave.[4] There is a ring of eight bells, all cast in 1779 by William Mears. They are unringable because the tower is unsafe,[5] having last been rung (except for the curfew bell) in 1913.[6]