Filkins - St Peter's Church

About

St Peter’s, Filkins was built in medieval (Victorian Gothic) style in 1855 - 57 by George Edmund Street, who went on to build the Law Courts in the Strand, London.

Filikins was originally part of Broadwell parish and given by Ralph de Limesi of Broadwell to the Knights Templar soon after 1185. When the Templars fell from grace, 1307 -1314, Filkins remained a farming area of small freeholders and became larger than Broadwell itself.

William Hervey applied to the Oxford Diocese for an independent parish in 1851 and plans were submitted for a church.

John Betjeman described the church as “simple and subtle in local stone” - the stone came from the Windrush quarry owned by the Jackson family who built the church. This was also the period of the Arts and Crafts movement and the East windows are by Clayton and Bell, who reverted to ancient medieval methods of glass manufacturing in order to achieve higher levels of luminosity and colour saturation. William Morris was also engaged to produce designs for the church glass.