Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This church probably originates from the 8th century and was remodelled in the 12th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1866 and again later in the 19th century, with a vestry added in 1913–14. The building is constructed from ashlar and rubble magnesian limestone with lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower that overlaps the aisles, a three-bay nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel in an extension of the aisle and a north vestry.

The west tower has a pre-Conquest core that was refaced in the 15th century and extensively restored. It features a chamfered plinth and moulded band, offset angle buttresses flanking a pointed-arched west door with hoodmould, and a string course beneath a pointed-arched three-light window with unrestored hoodmould having head-carved stops and a statue niche above. The belfry stage contains pairs of transomed two-light openings with cusped blind panels below louvres, with shared hoodmoulds featuring head-carved stops. A string course with north and south gargoyles and a traceried frieze runs beneath the embattled parapet, which carries four crocketed pinnacles. North and south clocks sit beneath the belfry stage.

The southern aisle overlap to the tower is 15th-century ashlar with a diagonal west buttress, a square-headed window to the south and a triangular-headed three-light window to the west. The 15th-century porch, restored in the 20th century, has angle buttresses and iron gates across a pointed arch with shafted jambs, dog tooth to the soffit and a billeted hoodmould. Within it sits a two-order 12th-century doorway with renewed shafts and a left capital to the arch featuring a chamfer, zig-zag and dogtoothed hood. A 15th-century grave slab lies on the inner porch wall to the east beneath a niche containing a seated figure.

The 14th-century right aisle is rubble with buttresses to the east and between two-light windows having chamfered, quoined surrounds and shouldered heads. A Decorated three-light east window has renewed tracery with couchettes beneath the old hoodmould. The 15th-century clerestorey is ashlar with pointed three-light windows and hoodmoulds. Embattled parapets run across the entire south side, with the nave parapet featuring crocketed pinnacles and an east cross. The north aisle was rebuilt in 1866 but incorporates two round-headed windows.

The chancel was rebuilt of ashlar with a chamfered plinth and moulded bandy buttresses to the east and between bays. A Tudor-arched priests' door sits beneath a 20th-century hollow-chamfered three-light window with square head; to its left is a restored 15th-century two-light window in the same style, and to the right a similar three-light window with arched head. The five-light east window has renewed tracery to cusped ogee heads beneath an arched hoodmould. A string course runs beneath a coped ashlar parapet with crocketed east pinnacles and a cross. The separately-roofed vestry of 1913 has a Tudor-arched east door flanked by hooded ogee windows, with similar north and west windows.

Interior

The interior retains a tall double-chamfered tower arch and low 12th-century round arches from the tower to the aisles beneath round-headed slit windows. Pre-Conquest side-alternate quoins are visible at the west end of the nave from the aisles. The north arcade comprises three bays with plain round arches, with the first arch being taller; the cylindrical piers include one scalloped capital and one carved with figures in foliage. Above the central arch sits a blocked Saxon window with a round-arched head cut from a single stone, with splays visible externally; above the outer arches are the quoined jambs of other pre-Conquest openings, their heads cut away by the clerestorey windows. The south arcade, dating to around 1200, has three pointed arches on cylindrical piers with differing carved capitals. In the south aisle is a triangular-headed piscina with a projecting square bowl. The north aisle contains an ogee recess beneath the eastern aisle window and a semi-octagonal column piscina in 13th-century style, with a squint in the wall above.

The 12th-century chancel arch, restored, features a roll-mould continued as shafts down the west side with lozenge-carved imposts. A 19th-century double-chamfered arch opens into the north chapel, with a blocked pointed doorway to the east having a quadrant moulding. Around the east end of the chancel runs a string course above a round-headed south piscina and a recess in the north wall with iron stanchions.

The Perpendicular font is octagonal with four shafts about the column and shields and figures in quatrefoiled side panels. A medieval altar stone, brought from the castle and now in the north chapel, bears five crosses and a relic box niche.

Monuments and Furnishings

A 13th-century cross slab occupies the east end of the north aisle, above which stands a wall monument to the Bosvile family featuring an oval plaque set amongst foliage. The chancel south wall carries a monument by Knowles of Manchester to W. Richard Woodyeare (d.1835), while the north wall bears one by Thomas of London to Fountain John Woodyeare of Crookhill Hall (d.1814).

Brasses include one near the pulpit to Marie Tofield (d.1755), one on the chancel south wall to Rev. Henry Saxton dated 1665, and one in the north aisle recess to Nicholas Bosvile (d.1523). The south aisle contains a remarkable 12th-century coped tomb chest bearing medallions with knights in combat, winged beasts and zodiac signs; the sides display palmettes and a warrior fighting a dragon whilst a bishop with crozier stands nearby.

Glass includes jumbled 15th-century glass with three heads in the chancel south window and an east window of 1866 by H. Hughes.