Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a building of significant historical interest, with origins dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries. Later phases of construction occurred in the 14th and 15th centuries, with a restoration project undertaken in 1869. It is built of ashlar limestone with lead roofs.

The church comprises a three-stage west tower, a two-bay aisled nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel. The architectural style incorporates both Decorated and Perpendicular tracery, with embattled parapets throughout. The tower features offset angle buttresses to its lower section, a recessed west window with two ogee-headed lights beneath a segmental arch, a small round-headed window, and, on the upper stage, belfry openings with a continuous hoodmould. A recessed spirelet, complete with crockets and a weathervane, crowns the tower.

The nave’s chamfered plinth is complemented by offset angle buttresses to the aisle. The south porch has a pointed arch flanked by diagonal buttresses, with chamfered transverse arches within. A Decorated three-light window is set within the second bay of the nave. Square-headed clerestory windows containing two cusped lights provide illumination, aligned with a parapet featuring pinnacles. The north aisle features a blocked, quoined doorway and two pointed-arched, three-light windows. The chancel is of a lower profile, displaying a hooded priest’s door and a restored three-light window with reticulated tracery. The north chapel exhibits a blocked doorway with a four-centred arch and hoodmould, along with two windows, and renewed pinnacles.

Inside, the church showcases a moulded, pointed tower arch and a double-chamfered arcade resting on cylindrical piers with octagonal capitals, the north piers having broach-stopped bases. A quadrant-moulded chancel arch is also present, alongside a Gothic Revival arcade leading to the north chapel, supported by a twin-shafted pier. Piscinas are located in the nave and north chapel, and a reliquary niche is situated in the north aisle. The roofs of the nave, south aisle, and chancel date to the 15th century, with cambered tie beams and decorative bosses. An octagonal font with billets around its base stands in the nave. A plaque commemorating the 1869 restoration, dedicated to John Hartop of Barnburgh Hall, is also present. A good Romanesque cross shaft, adorned with acanthus carving and figures in high relief, is positioned near a north aisle pier. Medieval parclose screens enclose the chapel in the south aisle, with a similar screen at the east end of the north aisle. The north chapel houses an early 14th-century wooden effigy of a knight, Sir Percival Cresacre (d. 1477), located within a buttressed and canopied tomb bearing a Latin inscription. A wall monument commemorating the Vincent family is found on the south wall of the chapel, which memorializes Thomas Vincent (d. 1667). Additional brass memorials honor Anna Cresacre (d. 1577), the ward and later daughter-in-law of Sir Thomas More, and Alice, wife of G. Mompesson (d. 1716), also within the chancel.