Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter comprises a late 13th-century west tower and a largely 1867-8 rebuilding by W. Bassett Smith of London. The tower is constructed of squared limestone, while the remainder of the church is of coursed and squared granite with limestone dressings and plain tile roofs. The building consists of a west tower, nave, north aisle, and chancel.

The massive west tower has four stages on a plinth, featuring clasping buttresses to the lower stages which are angled above and terminate in gargoyles at the embattled parapet. A 2-light window illuminates the west side, and paired lights are found in the bell chamber, all detailed in a coarse, heavy style. The tower is topped with a recessed spire containing lucarnes. A clock and sundial are also present. A steeply-gabled, coped porch shelters the south doorway, which incorporates a late 13th-century style inner doorway with a hoodmould, keeled moulding, and a hollow chamfer to the archway, utilizing banded gold and grey stone. The windows are in a Decorated style, each of two lights with hoodmoulds. A moulded string course runs along the building, with buttresses punctuating the facade. A priest’s door is located in the chancel, its hoodmould springing from the string course. The east window is a three-light design in the Decorated style. A small, vernacular Gothic vestry adjoins the north side, exhibiting a coped gable with kneelers and a depressed, foiled window. An unprojecting string course defines the vestry and north aisle, which is buttressed and incorporates segmentally arched windows of two lights.

Inside, the west tower arch is from the late 13th century - a triple chamfered, shallow archway springs high from double chamfered responds. The north nave arcade comprises four bays, made of banded grey and gold ashlar with double chamfered arches. Small foliate bands decorate the capitals, and the arches spring from alternating cylindrical and octagonal shafts. The responds are semi-octagonal and keeled, with a partially ceiled roof above a cambered braced tie-beam. The chancel arch has slim cylindrical shafts and corbel-piers with heavy foliage capitals, built of banded ashlar. All fittings are contemporary with the 1867-8 rebuilding, including encaustic floor tiles, pews, stalls, and altar rails. The east window, dating from 1844 and removed from the earlier church, features emblematic motifs such as circles and quatrefoils on a filigree background. Figures of St. Peter, James, and John appear in north and south chancel windows, dating to circa 1870, noted for their gaudy colours. A north aisle window depicts narrative scenes and is dated 1889. Another window is attributed to Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and as the two windows form a stylistic pair, they were presumably both the work of this firm. The west tower window, from 1882, depicts "The Good Shepherd" and "The Light of the World" in heavily detailed imagery. The font, dating from circa 1850, is octagonal and heavily carved with reliefs of the emblems of the evangelists.