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

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

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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