Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Parish church of mixed periods, incorporating Norman elements but primarily dating to the 13th and 15th centuries, with later alterations and restoration work. The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with stone slate roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, a short nave with low north and south aisles, a chancel with a north aisle and vestry, and a south chapel.

The Perpendicular tower is of rectangular plan with three tall stages. It stands on a chamfered plinth with diagonal buttresses rising to half the tower's height. Dripbands run across the tower at two levels. The west face features a two-centred arched doorway with a studded plank door, moulded with two orders of hollow moulding and a hoodmould with figured stops and an apex shield (left blank). Above this is a large two-centred arched west window, restored, containing four cusped lights with Perpendicular tracery in the head. A small window was inserted into the second stage. The belfry openings are two-centred arched windows with two stages of cusped lights, traceried heads, and hoodmoulds. Large carved gargoyles project from the corners, with smaller ones set in the centre of each face. The parapet is embattled and restored, with crocketed pinnacles at the angles and the centre of each side.

The three-bay nave and south aisle have buttressed walls. The first bay of the south aisle contains a low gabled porch with side buttresses and a stone roof. The outer doorway is two-centred arched with a stop-chamfered surround; the inner doorway has two orders of chamfer. Stone benches line the porch, and four massive, closely-spaced chamfered roof ribs span the space. The remaining bays of the aisle each contain a square-headed recessed two-light window; the second bay also has an inserted square-headed window of three pointed lights with hollow spandrels. At the west end of the nave stands a 13th-century pointed lancet, with the line of a formerly lower roof visible above it.

The nave has three square-headed clerestory windows of two arched lights with hollow spandrels. A small wall sundial is set between the second and third windows on the south side.

The buttressed two-bay south chapel has a square-headed doorway in the first bay. Its windows are square-headed openings of three round-headed lights with hollow spandrels; the east window contains three arched lights.

The chancel is lit by a large restored east window of two stages of round-headed lights.

The north aisle is continuous along the nave and chancel, creating four bays with buttresses. The first bay contains a blocked Tudor-arched doorway with moulded surround and hoodmould with figured stops. The remaining bays have square-headed windows of three round-headed lights with hollow spandrels; the first two are restored, the third original, all with hoodmoulds.

A gabled vestry stands at the east end, featuring a two-centred arched window with Perpendicular tracery in the head.

Interior

The interior reveals a three-bay nave arcade. The south arcade is of 13th-century date and notably lower in height. The north arcade was rebuilt in the 15th century except for the west respond, which matches the south arcade in style but is carried up to the higher level on a stilt. Both arcades employ octagonal columns and double-chamfered two-centred arches; the north arcade has more elaborately moulded capitals.

The tower arch incorporates Norman responds of paired shafts with set-back flanking shafts. These shafts bear rope-work rings and are crowned with decorated scalloped capitals, beneath which are highly decorated friezes. The capitals are of unequal height—the northern capital is two inches taller and set four inches higher than its southern counterpart, though they are stylistically a pair, possibly surviving elements of the chancel arch from an earlier church. Re-used chevron-decorated Norman masonry appears in both walls of the tower. Herringbone masonry is visible on the south side of the south pier to the chancel arch.

The nave and both aisles have roofs of moulded beams with block bosses. The south aisle roof includes carved heads on four of the stone corbels.

The chancel contains a two-bay south arcade with an octagonal column bearing a band of raised flowers on its capital and broach stops to the foot. A double-chamfered arch turns this arcade. On the north side is a single wide double-chamfered arch. A shouldered doorway leads to the north vestry, with the voussoirs of a two-centred former archway visible above.

The font, an octagonal bowl on an octagonal pedestal, stands within the tower and was restored to this position in 1933.

At the west end of the north aisle is a blocked lepers' window. To the left of the south door lies a small semicircular stone carved with three concentric grooves, possibly the relocated head of a Norman window. At the west end of the south aisle stands a relocated bench with 16th-century inlay.

Various wall monuments are housed in the tower, including a square tablet with fluted border commemorating Sarah, wife of John Carr of York, who died in 1787 aged seventy-five.