Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a parish church located in Barkestone-le-Vale, primarily dating from the 14th century, with some alterations from the 15th century. The church features a west tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, and south aisle, which were added along with a rebuilt clerestory in 1840 by William Parsons. It underwent restoration in 1857. The building is constructed of ironstone with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs.

The tower is three stages high with diagonal buttresses and a three-light Perpendicular west window. There are string courses between the storeys, slit lights to the ringing chamber, and two-light Perpendicular belfry windows. The tower is topped with a crenellated limestone parapet featuring angle pinnacles and a plain octagonal spire. The north aisle includes two three-light Perpendicular windows under four-centred arches and a similar east window. The south aisle has three-light Perpendicular windows made of cast iron and an arched doorway. The chancel is illuminated by two-light arched windows.

Inside, there is a three-bay arcade supported by compound piers with circular moulded bases and undercut capitals, while the south side dates from 1840. The tower arch is triple chamfered. The nave roof features tie beams on arched braces that drop onto wall posts leading to corbels, with king struts rising from the ties to a ridge piece, creating triangular traceried openwork panels. A plain 13th-century drum font is present, along with a 14th-century effigy in the nave beneath an ogeed wall arch with a finial. The 15th-century tower screen is partly made from doors originally belonging to a chancel screen. The chancel roof resembles that of the nave but dates from the 19th century. There are four stall ends in the chancel, adorned with elaborate poppyheads and deeply undercut figures of saints and other carvings from the late 15th century.