Church of St Peter is a Grade I listed building in the Cheshire East local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 April 1967. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Peter
- WRENN ID
- steep-iron-grove
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Cheshire East
- Constituency
- Macclesfield MP: Tim Roca (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 April 1967
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Peter, the Village, Prestbury
- OS grid reference
- SJ 900 769
- Coordinates
- 53.28927, -2.15051
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating from the early to mid-13th century, with a south aisle added in the early 14th century. A tower and porch were constructed around 1480, and the church underwent alterations and restoration in the 17th century, followed by a substantial restoration from 1879 to 1885 by Sir G G and J O Scott. The building is constructed of ashlar buff and pink sandstone, with a Kerridge stone-slate roof.
The church comprises a 6-bay nave and aisles, a 3-bay chancel, a west tower, and a south porch. The south porch features diagonal buttresses and crocketted pinnacles on the gable. The south aisle has a 2-light window with Y-tracery and 17th-century 3-light stone mullion windows. The clerestory has 2-light windows with trefoil cusped heads. The north aisle is a product of the 19th-century restoration. A sanctus bellcote rises from the ridge. The 5-light east window of the chancel has tiers of lights with cusped heads. The 4-stage west tower has clasping square buttresses. The west door has a label mould featuring carved heads. A 3-light west window disrupts the bond of an interlacing pattern. A clock is located in the third stage, with 2-light louvred bell openings positioned above. Further down is a band of interlacing below the embattled parapet, which is embellished with crocketted pinnacles.
Inside, the arcade separating the nave from the north aisle is composed of 6 bays with alternate circular and octagonal pillars. The arcade to the south aisle has quatrefoil pillars, one featuring a stiff-leaf capital. Paintings from 1719 in the spandrels depict the apostles and tribes of Israel. The nave roof trusses feature arch braced tiebeams with 4 diagonal struts and a collar with 2 diagonal struts. The aisles contain Victorian glass. The Legh Chantry Chapel houses an oak classical screen dated 1744, and a memorial to Charles Legh, comprising an urn positioned in front of an obelisk designed by Joseph Turner and dated 1781. A fine neoclassical screen of 1787 stands within the chancel, which also contains a reset tympanum of 12th-century origin, decorated with interlaced trellis work. A Jacobean pulpit with arcaded panels dates from 1607. A 14th-century font has a plain circular bowl and carved head bosses on a quatrefoil pillar, notably similar to an example at Nether Alderley. It is covered by a Jacobean font cover. A Jacobean tower screen features an open pierced arcade, with a later turned baluster rail above.
Local climate
Church of St Peter sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,030 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 83% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 68% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 44 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 86% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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