Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church that dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries, with alterations made in the 16th century and a south porch added in the 19th century. The east end was modified in the 1960s. The church features a nave, chancel, a large south chapel, a small north chapel, and the south porch. The masonry of the nave is from the 12th century. The west end has buttresses on either side and 19th-century windows with wooden tracery in the Decorated style. Above, there is a pedimented bellcote from 1753. The north wall of the nave has a blocked 13th-century doorway and a 16th-century, 2-light window with depressed heads. There are two similar windows on the south wall of the nave. The south door, located in the porch, is from the 12th century and features one order of colonettes, block capitals, and an arch with roll-moulding. A plain parapet obscures the low-pitched nave roof. The south chapel has blocked lancet windows on the return walls, a tiny blocked 12th-century window, and a re-set 12th-century door with a round head and continuous roll-moulding on the west wall. The south and east walls of the chapel have 14th-century 2-light windows with cusped Y-tracery. The chancel, likely from the 13th century, has a small lancet window on the south wall. The east gable was rebuilt in the 19th century, and the east window was added in the 1960s.

Inside, the church has a low-pitched 16th-century nave roof supported by tie beams on large corbels and king posts. There are early 19th-century box pews and a rustic monument to Robert Charnocke from 1691 on the north wall. Five steps lead up to the chancel, which has a crypt beneath. The early 19th-century chancel and chapel arches are keyed for plaster and feature double chamfers that die into imposts. The arch-braced roofs of the chancel and south chapel are from the 19th century and rest on mid-20th-century corbels. The south chapel contains a large altar tomb of Sir Ralph Grey and his wife from 1443, made of sandstone. It has canopied, enriched arcades that hold 14 figures of saints, with angels holding shields in between. The plinth and cornice are adorned with bubble-leaf ornamentation. On each side, two larger angels support heraldic shields. The chapel also features alabaster recumbent effigies of high quality, and a reredos behind the altar with an angel holding a shield between demi-angels with helmets. Above this is a 17th-century addition with strapwork and a Royalist motto: "De bon vouloir servir le Roy." Additionally, there is an 18th-century fireplace with Gothick detail in the south chapel and a small octagonal font dated 1670, along with a Jacobean pulpit.