Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Parish church built in 1844–1845 by G Y Wall, a land agent from Durham. The church was paid for by the Bishop of Durham with a grant from the Incorporated Society for Building and Repairing Churches. (Note: earlier 19th-century histories incorrectly attributed the design to Mr. Watts.)

The church is constructed in coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings and a stone plinth. The roof is Welsh slate with stone gable copings and stone ridge tiles. The plan comprises a nave with a west porch and a chancel with a north vestry.

The gabled west porch contains double boarded doors set in a two-centred arched surround with pyramid-stopped chamfer. A blind trefoil appears in the gable peak, topped by a fleur-de-lys finial. The porch is flanked by lancet windows with beak head-stopped dripmoulds. A central projection rising from the porch carries a quatrefoil light and supports a gabled bellcote with a chamfered round arch beneath another fleur-de-lys finial.

The nave has lancets arranged in pairs across three bays, and the chancel features paired lancets in its west bay with three stepped lancets to the east. Windows have sill strings and dripmoulds. High coped buttresses, clasping at the corners, project from the walls. Gable copings rest on double-roll-moulded kneelers and are finished with stone cross finials.

Interior

The interior has painted plaster above boarded dado with ashlar dressings. The nave roof is queen-post construction, while the chancel roof is scissor-trussed on chamfered stone corbels. The chancel arch is widely chamfered. The chancel is raised one step above the nave, with further steps to the sacristy and altar. The chancel floor is laid in medieval-style tiles.

A Gothic-style organ, a gift from James Watson Hick (rector 1845–1875), stands in the chancel. A Gothic-lettered "Our Father" frieze runs above the chancel arch, with a motto also positioned over the arch. The communion rail is Gothic arcaded. Original pews remain, with fleur-de-lys finials at both ends of the rails; the four front pews are panelled with moulding.

A 20th-century panelled reredos partially obscures the east windows. The east window is a memorial, probably from the late 19th or early 20th century, showing groups of saints in flowing composition. Flanking lancets in the north and south walls contain Byzantine-style figures of Saints Peter and Andrew, probably by J. W. Hick and originally positioned differently. Paired lights in the south chancel wall feature Renaissance-style figures, including one depicting Christ or God with a three-rayed nimbus and another inscribed "St. John" in a shield, set in geometric glass in strong colours.

The nave windows are of varied styles and mostly date from the mid-19th century. Several contain medallion patterns or figures. One window commemorates John Robson of Durham, who died in 1857. Another, by Lawson of Newcastle, commemorates his son William Henry, who died in a colliery explosion in 1852 at age 18 while serving as resident manager investigating a problem at the mine. This forms a remarkable collection of mid-19th-century glass.

A wood pulpit, panelled, has the names of rectors inscribed upon it. A wood eagle lectern on a Gothic pedestal bears a brass plaque recording it was carved by J. W. Hick, as were the poppyheads in the choir, executed in the style of Bishop Cosin.

The font is a square pedestal with waterleaf decoration, transferred from Kirk Merrington Church of St. John the Evangelist.

Monuments include a classical-style black and white pedimented panel behind the pulpit commemorating Reverend R. E. Hoopel (1833–1895), rector from 1875 to 1895, whose recognition of the importance of the Saxon church at Escomb brought it to the attention of scholars for the first time.