Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating to a late 15th-century rebuild of a Norman church, with remnants of the Norman structure visible within the tower’s interior. A late medieval timber roof is present in the nave, likely contemporary with the Tudor north aisle. The west tower and south nave wall were rebuilt between 1757 and 1760 by local mason Joshua Brear, and the chancel was restored in 1875. The church is constructed of dressed stone with a stone slate roof. It comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, vestry, and west tower. The architecture is largely classical, with the north aisle exhibiting Perpendicular detailing.

The tower is a two-stage structure. The first stage features a window with an architrave, impost, and semicircular head, incorporating a keystone, Gothic glazing, and a clock with two faces. A band separates the stages, and the south face displays the rebuilding date. The tower is topped with a parapet and crocketed pinnacles. The nave and chancel each have three bays with semicircular-arched windows, keystones, imposts, and architraves. Two doorways feature Gibbs surrounds and triple keystones. The north aisle has four bays of three-light, chamfered mullioned windows with arched lights, sunken spandrels, and offset buttresses. The Victorian east end incorporates a three-light window with panel tracery and a two-light window serving the vestry, all beneath a separate roof. Coped gables with kneelers are present, the chancel gable crowned with a carved cross.

Inside, the nave features a three-bay Tudor arcade with octagonal piers lacking capitals and four-centred, chamfered arches. The chancel arch is four-centred on square piers. A further bay extending eastward from the chancel arch mirrors the arcade. A well-preserved five-bay nave roof exhibits king-post trusses with stop-chamfered principals, curved braces to the ridge, and moulded tie-beams; two tie-beams are adorned with carved bosses, one supported on a stubby wooden corbel with a curved brace. The aisle has a lean-to roof with straight principals and roll-moulded edges, along with two trenched stop-chamfered purlins. A west gallery is supported by turned wooden columns. A semi-octagonal baptistry set under the gallery retains an 18th-century baluster-shaped font. The chancel features a 19th-century three-bay arched-braced, hammer-beam boarded roof preserving its original stencil decoration. Several wall monuments commemorate the Cuncliffe family of Farfield Hall, including a notable example by Sherwood (Derby) erected in 1809, depicting a mourning figure and draped urn. A fragment of a late Saxon cross, displaying two figures beneath a circle containing a carved cross, is also present.