Boundary Wall, Gates and Gatepiers of Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

The boundary wall, gates, and gatepiers of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul are located on the east side of Thornton Road in Stainton. The structure includes two pairs of gatepiers from the mid to late 17th century, a boundary and retaining wall from the 18th and early 19th centuries, and late 19th-century gates. The materials used are dressed sandstone for the wall and iron for the gates. The wall, which features chamfered copings, encloses the north and west sides of the churchyard. The north gatepiers have plain bases and shafts, with entablature caps that include a bolection-moulded frieze and ball-on-stem finials. The two-leaf gates have diamond vertical bars, with urn finials on the end bars, and there is a similar plain pedestrian gate to the right, flanked by short plain piers. The west gatepiers are similar but feature ogee-domed caps and are accessed by six steps, leading to another set of similar two-leaf gates. Historically, the gatepiers may have been relocated from Thornton Hall, which was demolished around 1800. A brick wall adjacent to the west gatepiers is not of special interest.