Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church largely dating to the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, with a chancel rebuilt in 1864. It is constructed of ashlar in Mount Sorrel stone, red brick, half timbering, and has lead roofs. The church features a western tower with a spire, a clerestoried nave, aisles, a south porch, and a chancel. The tall, two-stage 15th-century tower has stepped angle buttresses, a plinth, a chamfered string course, and an embattled parapet. The recessed spire has two tiers of lucarnes in alternating positions. The tower's belfry openings are tall, 2-light openings with cusped and pointed heads. A narrow south door has a flat arched head. A 3-light 15th-century west window has panel tracery within a pointed surround with a hood mould. An unusual feature of the north aisle is a large, cusped spherical triangle window. The north door has a chamfered and sunk quadrant moulding, followed by two 2-light 19th-century windows with cusped heads, and a smaller similar window. The eastern window of the aisle is 3-light with intersecting tracery. The chancel has a single 2-light cusped window to the north, a 3-light eastern window with curvilinear tracery, and a 2-light south window with Geometric style tracery. The south aisle’s east window is 3-light with intersecting tracery, alongside similar 3-light, 2-light, and smaller 2-light windows to the south. The south aisle has four small square upper lights. A buttress on the south side incorporates a mass dial. The 19th-century south porch, built of red brick and half timbering, conceals a large early 14th-century south door with iron hinges and worn scrollwork. Inside, the nave arcades are five bays long; the north side has large octagonal piers with double chamfered arches, while the south side has filleted quatrefoil piers with double chamfered arches. Notable fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font with unusually arranged quatrefoils, and fragments of an early 14th-century stained glass in the south aisle east window. A base of a 15th-century rood screen is now located in the north aisle, retaining some original paintwork. Above the chancel entrance, a tympanum painted with the Ten Commandments dates from 1820, as does the nave roof.