Even the briefest of looks at the outside of the church will confirm to you that it is a medieval structure; and that’s without any great understanding or study of architectural history. It simply, and intuitively, looks that old.
If you have some knowledge, then you will know that the age of a structure can be established and categorised by the changing styles and fashions of the day; to which, labels such as Norman, Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular and so on can be given. Don’t worry about the jargon; this labelling isn’t important to most people, and a lack of understanding won’t detract from admiring and appreciating what you see.
However, what is useful to know is that the St. Peter and St. Paul’s church that we see today wasn’t all constructed in just one single time period or style. As you would expect of a building this old, it has gone through a number of alterations and renovations, with some bits knocked down, added or rebuilt over the course of the passing centuries. Much of the fabric of the building we see today was built in the 14th and 15th centuries.
There was an even earlier church which once occupied this site, going back to Norman times (i.e. the 12th and 13th centuries). Hardly a trace of this now exists, but there are Norman foundations hidden under the modern wooden flooring in the Nave, underneath the existing pillars.
Going back even further, to Saxon times (9th to 11th centuries) there was a church in Gosberton. We don’t know where it was sited, but we know there must have been one because by the time the Normans conquered Britain, this place was called “Gosberkirk” or “Gozeberlechercha” (as it appears in the Domesday Book) meaning probably ‘the church of Gosbert or Gosberd.’ We don’t know who this person is, but presumably he was a Saxon leader or religious person.
