Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A parish church built in 1864 by James Fowler of Louth, with a 20th-century addition to the west end. The building is aligned north-east to south-west and combines rock-faced sandstone ashlar with Ancaster limestone dressings externally, and painted brick with ashlar dressings internally, beneath a Welsh slate roof. The design follows the Gothic Revival style.

The church comprises a 4-bay aisled nave with a south porch, a single-bay chancel with an adjoining single-bay organ chamber and chapel to the south, and a tower with vestry adjoining to the north. A chamfered plinth runs throughout with angle buttresses and buttresses between bays, and a sill string-course.

The nave aisles feature segmental-pointed 3-light windows to north and south, with foiled round windows to the clerestory. The west end is flanked by buttresses with a central pointed 3-light traceried window with a quatrefoiled oculus above, and a pointed 2-light window to the north aisle. The porch has a pointed moulded outer arch with hoodmould and foliate stops, with a pointed chamfered inner arch with hoodmould and plain stops, and a scissor-braced open rafter roof.

The chancel contains a pointed 2-light south window and a pointed 3-light east window with a foiled roundel above. A 1914-18 war memorial plaque is inserted in the east wall, recording church bells and churchyard cross. The adjoining organ chamber and chapel has a pointed 2-light south window with a blind slit in the gable above.

The 3-stage tower has a chamfered and moulded plinth, string-courses between stages, full-height diagonal buttresses, and a staircase projection in the north-east angle. The first stage contains a chamfered shouldered-arched north door and a pointed 2-light east window. The second stage has a plain slit light with a pointed relieving arch. The top stage features pointed single-light belfry openings with a clockface to the east, a moulded string-course, angle gargoyles, and a coped embattled parapet. All windows display Gothic Revival tracery with hoodmoulds and stops, those to the tower being carved. Coped gables with shaped kneelers and carved open work finials, with crested ridge tiles, feature throughout. The single-storey vestry in the north-east angle has a 3-light trefoiled east window and plain coped parapet.

Internally, the nave features arcades of pointed brick arches in two orders, with plain inner orders of banded ashlar and brick, and outer orders with moulded brick nailhead arrises and ashlar hoodmoulds with carved foliate stops. Cylindrical ashlar piers and plain quoined responds support ornate carved foliate capitals and moulded bases on tall plinths. A tall pointed chancel arch displays similar brick and ashlar details on responds with paired shafts with foliate capitals and mid shaft-rings. A segmental-pointed hollow-chamfered west door opens into the nave. The north aisle has a pointed east arch with nailhead moulding and hoodmould. The south aisle features a pointed ashlar arch to the chapel. The chancel contains a segmental-pointed double hollow-chamfered arch to the organ chamber, and a tripartite recess to the north of pointed arches with nailhead moulding and hoodmoulds on paired shafts with foliate capitals; an adjoining vestry door to the right has a similar blind arch over. Chancel windows and the nave west window have chamfered reveals, nailhead moulding and hoodmoulds; other windows have quoined surrounds. A dentilled brick cornice runs throughout. The nave and chancel roofs feature scissor braces, corbelled wall posts and arch braces to main trusses. The church contains a carved ashlar reredos, an octagonal font with ornate carved panels, and 19th-century pews.

The building became a parish church in 1889.