Church Of St. Peter

The Church of St. Peter is a Grade II* listed building located in Elwick, with origins dating back to the late 12th century. The nave was restored in the mid to late 17th century and underwent re-roofing in 1895. The chancel, which incorporates earlier masonry, was also re-roofed in 1887. The lower stage of the tower was built in 1813, while the upper stage was completed in 1860. A late 19th-century vestry is attached to the church.

The church features random limestone rubble for the nave and tower, with dressed gritstone used for the chancel, all topped with Westmorland slate roofs. It has an aisled nave, a chancel with a north vestry, and a south-west tower that includes a porch. The three-stage tower has string courses separating the stages, a round-headed south doorway, and an embattled parapet. The south aisle contains one glazed window and traces of two blocked lancets. The south-west doorway is pointed and chamfered, featuring a hoodmould and a human mask stop to the left. The south wall of the chancel has two mid-17th-century mullioned windows with labels, along with a blocked, chamfered doorway situated between them. All other windows in the nave and chancel are from the mid-19th century.

Inside, the church has 12th-century four-bay arcades. The north arcade features two chamfered orders that spring from moulded octagonal capitals on short circular piers with square plinths; the half-round responds have waterleaf capitals dating to around 1200, although they were re-cut at the west end. The south arcade is similar, but its piers are taller, and the capitals are circular (with the west pier being octagonal) and plain. The nave roof has cusped struts and principals that form center quatrefoils and side semi-quatrefoils, with through-purlins supported by curved windbraces. Anglo-Saxon sculptured stones are built into the east wall of the nave.

The church contains stained glass, including a window in the north-east of the north aisle by A.K. Nicholson from around 1916, and the east window of the south aisle by W.E. Tower. There are remains of a sculptured Crucifixion attached to the base of the west pier of the north aisle. In the chancel, there are two sets of carved bench ends, totaling eight, dating to around 1665, when Bishop Cosin was Rector of Elwick. The chancel also features several late Georgian memorial tablets on its north and south walls. The mensa, or altar, is made of Frosterly marble from the pre-Reformation period, supported by late 19th-century rendered supports. The tower houses two late 17th-century bells.