Parish Church of St Peter

Parish Church of St Peter

An Anglican church built in 1768 at the sole expense of William Wright of Mottram Hall, Mottram St Andrew, Cheshire. The church is constructed of brick in Flemish bond with rubbed brick and stone dressings, with a slate roof and copper roof to the bell turret dome. An additional phase of construction in the 1880s used Accrington brick in Flemish bond with a slate roof.

The original plan was rectangular with a west end porch tower flanked by west end vestries and a shallow communion apse at the east end. The interior was organised with a pulpit placed centrally in front of the communion table. A west gallery was inserted in 1782, followed by the addition of side galleries in 1838. During the 1880s phase, a larger apsidal chancel was added, the side galleries were removed, along with the original pulpit and box pews, and low vestry blocks were constructed to the northeast and southeast. A northeast Lady Chapel was added around 1920.

The nave features a moulded stone cornice that returns round the west end. Round-headed nave windows have timber Y tracery with rubbed brick arches and stone imposts and keystones. The tower is square to the lower two stages and rises to a domed octagonal bell turret. The round-headed west doorway has a triple keystone and pilaster imposts, with three square-headed brick recesses above and a Venetian window in the second stage—the central light glazed with a small-pane window with intersecting glazing bars in the head and louvers to the outer openings. Venetian windows to the north and south sides are blocked. The bell turret has square-headed louvred windows, partly boarded up, with a clock face on the east side. The 1768 southwest vestry block has a hipped lean-to roof with a round-headed window with Y tracery and a brick stack rising from the west wall of the nave. The northwest vestry has been rebuilt slightly larger than the original with a hipped slate roof and a large round-headed west window. The 1880s vestries abutting the nave at the east end are low brick structures with parapets and round-headed windows. The apsidal chancel has a moulded brick cornice and high-set round-headed windows and pilasters above a moulded brick stringcourse, with a foundation stone dated 1888 set into the wall. The 1920s Lady Chapel also has an apsidal east end.

The interior contains a groin-vaulted vestibule in the west tower with a plaster rose in the centre. On the south side is a doorway leading to the gallery staircase with splat balusters. The corresponding space on the north side has been converted to kitchens and other facilities. Double doors, part-glazed with rectangular overlights, open into the nave, which now opens into a screened-off coffee shop and social area. The nave has a flat plaster ceiling with a moulded cornice and moulded plaster roundels for former light fittings. Windows have plaster hoodmoulds with leaf terminations. The nave and chancel division is defined by a plastered cross beam with plain imposts. The west end gallery of 1782 has a timber panelled front with plain pilasters with acanthus leaf detail at the bases and a central shield with the keys of St Peter. A late 20th-century partition beneath the gallery separates this space from the rest of the nave.

A late 18th-century marble baluster font with a quatrefoil bowl stands on a stem of clustered shafts with water-leaf capitals in the southwest corner. An 1880s low stone chancel screen with wrought iron cresting and gates is integral with the pulpit, which has a polygonal stone base and wrought iron sides. The lower half of the sanctuary apse is lined with fielded panelling. The reredos features a 20th-century painting in a timber frame with strapwork cresting. An 1880s altar has painted blind arcading. The choir stalls have concave shoulders and pierced friezes to the back and frontals. Benches from the 1880s have sunk panels to the ends. The east wall of the northeast Lady Chapel is lined with similar panelling to that in the sanctuary apse. Late 18th and 19th-century wall monuments include one to the founder, William Wright of Mottram Hall, who died in 1770. This marble wall plaque is crowned by a draped urn and an obelisk. The stained glass in the apse windows is by Carponnier.

A circa 1780 view of Stockport shows the church sited on open ground on the outskirts of the old town, with the town subsequently growing and evolving around it. It was built as a chapel of ease by William Wright, Lord of the Manor of Offerton and Mottram St Andrew, whose town house was the Mansion House on High Street. The road of St Petersgate is said to have been constructed by him as a convenient route between his house and the church. In 1838, St Peter's was made a parish church.