Church Of St Peter With St James

Church of St Peter with St James

A Grade I listed church on St Peter's Gate in Nottingham. The building dates primarily from the 15th century but retains arcades from the 13th and mid-14th centuries. The nave and south aisle were reroofed between 1501 and 1509 by Nicholas Strelley. The church was extensively damaged in 1644. The chancel and north transept were renewed in 1875 by Evans & Jolley. Vestries were added in 1815 and 1936. Major restorations took place in 1719, 1914, 1929, and 1946. The building is constructed in ashlar with gabled and hipped slate roofs.

The plan comprises a chancel with vestries, a north transept, a nave with clerestory, aisles on both north and south, a west tower, and a spire. The exterior features a plinth, buttresses, and crenellated parapets to the nave and aisles.

The chancel extends three bays and has a plain parapet and coped gable. Its east wall contains a seven-light pointed arched window set on a sill band. The south side of the chancel has a moulded doorway with hood mould, flanked by two three-light pointed arched windows. The 1815 vestry adjoins to the east and has a Decorated style two-light window. The adjoining 1936 vestry extends two bays with a low pitched roof behind a parapet.

The north transept has a coped gable with a three-light Perpendicular window. The clerestory extends five bays. Its south side has ten three-light Perpendicular windows with bar tracery. The north side, renewed in 1699, has plain elliptical arched four-light windows.

The south aisle comprises ten bays with nine three-light pointed arched windows with transoms, their tracery renewed in 1927. At the third bay is an elliptical arched doorway with ogee hood mould of early 19th-century date. The east and west ends have similar four-light windows. The north aisle extends five bays with three-light pointed arched windows featuring hood moulds. At the fourth bay stands a projecting gabled porch of 1889 with a pointed arched doorway.

The west tower dates from the mid-14th century and is arranged in three stages with angle buttresses, a crenellated parapet, and a set-back octagonal spire. The west side has a pointed arched doorway with late 20th-century doors and above it a three-light pointed arched window with an empty niche. The bell stage contains four two-light pointed arched bell openings, each with a clock dial below.

The interior of the chancel features a double-coved arch with responds and a Decorated style wooden screen dated 1897. To the south are restored rood loft openings. A panelled wagon roof with elaborate painting rises above. The east window contains stained glass from 1878. The north side has a double chamfered arch with a traceried wooden screen and an organ console of 1898, plus a doorway. The south side has a piscina, sedilia, a doorway, and mid-19th-century stained glass windows.

The nave extends five bays with an arch-braced low pitched roof on angel corbels. The west end has a tall double chamfered tower arch with imposts, a glazed wooden screen and doors of 1887. The tower chamber above has a single-bay rib vault and a stained glass west window from 1870. The north arcade dates from around 1360 and was restored in 1495, possibly being raised in the early 18th century. It features fillet-moulded quatrefoil piers with double-chamfered arches with hood moulds and stops. The south arcade is 13th century with quatrefoil piers and double-chamfered arches with hood moulds. Between the third and fourth bays is a section of wall with a war memorial figure beneath a spire canopy dated 1922.

The north aisle has an off-centre doorway and four windows containing stained glass panels by John Bucknall from 1964. At its east end stands an organ case by Snetzler from 1770. The south aisle has a stained glass east window from 1874 and two west windows with stained glass from 1976 by Margaret Traherne. Both aisles have lean-to roofs.

The church contains a 17th-century panelled font on a traceried 14th-century stem. A mid-20th-century pulpit stands in the nave. Other fittings include a brass eagle lectern from 1894. Late 19th-century furnishings include former pews arranged as wainscotting.

Memorials include an obelisk with a portrait medallion by Bacon from 1811, and several tablets from the Church of St James, resited in 1933. Two Renaissance Revival style alabaster tablets of early 17th-century date are present. Two tablets to the Rickards family feature drapery and crests, one with a winged skull, dated 1675 and 1703 respectively.