Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter in Sunderland is a monastic church, now serving as a parish church. The earliest parts of the building date to around 674-5, with remnants of the original west wall and a two-story gabled west porch, now forming the lower stages of the tower, attributable to Benedict Biscop. The upper stages of the tower were constructed before 1000, and the rest of the church was built by the end of the 14th century. The nave and chancel were significantly altered in the 19th century; the chancel arch was removed early in that period, and the north aisle was rebuilt, including a new east window created in 1875-6 by Austin and Johnson. The interior and roof were substantially rebuilt in 1985, following a fire.

The church is primarily constructed of rubble with quoins and 19th-century ashlar dressings, and has a renewed Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. It comprises a nave and north aisle, a west tower, and a chancel with a south organ chamber.

The east elevation features clasping buttresses and a central buttress below a five-light window with decorative tracery, including a small ogee-tracery top light. The east front of the north chancel organ chamber has a pent roof with a two-light, cusped-tracery window in a pointed arch. The south chancel wall has two square-headed, two-light windows with tracery. The south transept has a three-light window resembling the east window, set under a steep gable. The nave’s south side has renewed three-light windows with dripmoulds, and the paired north transept gables each have two windows. The north aisle mirrors the nave with three three-light windows, incorporating angle buttresses. The west elevation has a single high light partially obscured by the tower’s fourth stage.

The west tower has five stages. The open-arched porch features three round-headed arches on impost blocks; the west arch has balusters supporting an eroded low-relief carving of interlace-style animals. The next stage has a single round-headed opening, above which is an eroded figure. The fourth stage has a simple arched light, and the belfry has two arched lights with a baluster mullion. A small blocked roundel sits above.

Inside, the porch is barrel-vaulted. The west wall demonstrates a sequence of alterations, including a low, wide arch. The nave arcade has pointed arches on round piers. The chancel floor is tiled with ochre and terracotta coloured tiles, replicating a motif of figures from the west door jambs alongside other medieval designs, with inlaid bands of marble. Display cases featuring finds from archaeological excavations are positioned in the north transept. The organ chamber now has an arch blocked to create an upper meeting room. Stained glass includes two lights by Kempe in the north transept; other glass is by LC Evetts. A scheduled ancient monument occupies the ground to the south of the church.