Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church in the Church Street area, which is primarily of 13th-century origin with a 15th-century tower. The building was mostly rebuilt in 1877 by the architect Arthur Blomfield, with an early 20th-century north vestry added subsequently. The church is constructed of tooled ashlar with a moulded stone plinth and has plain tile roofs with crested ridge tiles and stone coped gables, topped by a ridge cross above the nave.

The building consists of a three-stage western tower, a nave with north aisle, north vestry, south porch, and a lower chancel. The tower has full-height stepped angle buttresses to all corners and a chamfered band between the second and third stages. The west elevation features a pointed three-light window with 19th-century Decorated style tracery and a hoodmould, with a clockface above on the second stage. The south elevation has a small single-light window to the second stage, while the north elevation is blank. The bell stage above contains narrow two-light louvred panel-traceried pointed bell openings in cavetto-moulded surrounds with returned hoodmoulds on all sides, plus a clock face below the eastern opening. Above this is a coved stringcourse and embattled parapets topped by a metal weathervane.

The north aisle has a Y-tracery pointed 19th-century west window with carved head stops to the hoodmould, and a stepped angle buttress to the west corner. The north elevation of the aisle features a double-gabled vestry at the west end with a pointed western door, pairs of adjoining lancets to each northern gable, and a two-light flat-headed east window with cusped lights. The vestry has clasping buttresses to all corners. To the east, the aisle has three pointed 19th-century windows, each with stepped triple lancets plus quatrefoils in the spandrels, with stepped gableted buttresses between and at either end. The east wall of the aisle has a pointed two-light 19th-century geometric tracery window.

The chancel has a continuous moulded sill band and deep buttresses between each window and at the corners. The north elevation displays two 19th-century pointed Y-tracery windows. The east elevation has a larger version of the three-light north aisle windows. The south elevation contains three Y-tracery windows plus a moulded pointed doorcase between the western windows. The south nave elevation has a three-light pointed 19th-century window with stepped lancets below pierced quatrefoils to the east and a Y-tracery window to the west, with a gabled south porch beyond. This porch has a moulded pointed door with an oval niche above carved with the Lamb of God. To either side of the porch are trefoil-headed lancets. Inside the porch is a plain pointed door with a continuous outer moulding and carved keys in a trefoil niche above. Beyond to the west is another 19th-century Y-tracery window. The porch has stepped buttresses to either end and between the windows, and all 19th-century openings have hoodmoulds with carved head stops.

The interior has a four-bay 13th-century north arcade with pointed double-chamfered arches dying into octagonal shafts over the capitals, supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The tower has a tall continuous triple-chamfered arch. The chancel has a 19th-century double-chamfered arch on polygonal responds with moulded capitals. The north aisle has a roll-moulded pointed arch with soffit on column corbels with stiff-leaf capitals, extending into the north organ bay. The chancel has a similar arch to the north, plus a hoodmould with carved head stops. All north aisle and chancel windows have chamfered inner arches on attached colonnettes, and the chancel windows also have hoods with carved head stops, plus a continuous sill stringcourse. The chancel roof has 19th-century scissor trusses, while the nave and aisle have arched braced trusses. The north aisle also has a segment-headed door into the vestry.

Most of the church fittings are simple. The chancel contains a stone reredos with a mosaicked wall behind and an ogee-headed piscina to the south, plus late 19th-century metal and wooden altar rails, late 19th-century timber choir stalls, and an organ. Across the chancel arch is a plain low stone screen. In the south nave is a late 19th-century octagonal wooden pulpit with painted saints in trefoil-headed panels on a stone base. The north aisle has an early 20th-century war memorial screen across the eastern arch and late 19th-century bench pews. Similar pews appear in the nave, along with a similar-date octagonal stone font at the west end of the nave with diaper panels to each side of the bowl. Across the tower arch is a mid-20th-century wooden screen.

The most notable monument is an early 16th-century moulded four-centred arched tomb niche on the north side of the chancel. It contains a re-set alabaster slab incised with an illegible inscription and a figure, commemorating Roger Doulton who died in 1500. The organ bay contains several early 19th-century slate and white marble wall memorials to members of the Gresley family, and a classical aediculed white marble memorial of approximately 1792 to Thomas and Elizabeth Gresley. Below this are two re-set white marble slabs, one to Hannah Vincent dated approximately 1772 and the other to Elizabeth Gresley dated approximately 1759. The north aisle contains one ceramic and one enamelled brass wall plaque, the former dated approximately 1872 to Mary Birch and the latter dated approximately 1912 to Ruth Jeanette. It also has two painted charity boards dated 1678 and 1669.

The nave has a brass plaque of approximately 1912, and the tower contains several painted and embossed glass plaques recording the peals rung between 1909 and the present day. Much of the stained glass is commemorative in nature. The east window and reredos commemorate John Woodhouse who died in 1878. The south-east chancel window commemorates Isabella Robertson who died in 1899. The central and western windows on the south side of the chancel are dedicated to the memory of Reverend Gresley who died in 1897. The north-east chancel window, dated approximately 1914, is in memory of Constance Twiss. The central south nave window contains stained glass dated approximately 1922 with the inscription "Virtus sola nobilitat". The north aisle east window of 1899 commemorates Thomas Carter, while the west window contains re-set medieval glass at the top, including a small heraldic device.