Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This church at Grimston on Church Lane, Saxelby, dates from the 13th to 15th centuries and was restored in 1856-7. It is built of ironstone ashlar with ironstone dressings and has lead roofs except for a Welsh slate roof to the chancel. The building comprises a chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and west tower.

The chancel contains a 3-light east window with Perpendicular tracery, hood mould and label stops decorated with a king's head to the left and queen's head to the right. A lancet window is set to the north, with a similar window to the southwest featuring renewed nailhead ornament to the hood mould, and a 2-light window to the southeast with a straight head, ogee-arched heads to the lights, hood mould and label stops. The priest's door to the south is hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded with a hood mould.

The nave has a 2-light window to the northeast with Y tracery and a blocked north door with imposts and hood mould. A 3-window clerestory runs along the top with 2-light windows featuring straight heads, ogee-arched heads to the lights and plain stone-coped parapets.

The south aisle contains a 3-light east window with foiled intersecting tracery, 4-centred head and hood mould, a similar window to the southeast, and a 3-light west window with Perpendicular tracery, a quatrefoil above the central light, 4-centred head and hood mould. The south door has a hollow-chamfered surround with trefoiled spandrels, a wave-moulded rectangular surround and hood mould.

The south porch has a 19th-century roll-moulded doorway and small one-light windows to east and west with chamfered stone surrounds. A stoup is located below the east window inside the porch.

The 3-stage west tower features a 2-light window to the bottom stage west with cinquefoil-headed lights and hood mould, a 1-light window to the middle stage south, and 2-light bell-chamber openings with cusped lights, a quatrefoil to the head and hood moulds. A cusped lozenge frieze runs along the base of the battlemented parapet with gargoyles at the angles. The tower has a recessed crocketed spire with two tiers of lucarnes in alternating directions, and is strengthened by off-set clasping buttresses. Off-set buttresses also appear at the angles of the aisle, and diagonal offset buttresses support the chancel.

The tower and aisle have a deep limestone ashlar plinth with chamfers to the base and top, and a moulded string at intermediate level. Plain stone-coped parapets finish the porch, aisle and chancel.

Interior

The chancel arch has polygonal responds, chamfered capitals and double-chamfered arches. The nave contains a 4-bay south arcade with circular piers, semi-circular responds, and circular moulded capitals decorated with nailhead ornament on the southwest pier and stylised leaves on the others, all with double-chamfered arches.

The octagonal font has quatrefoils to the sides, a castellated top and attached shafts to the base.

The pulpit dates from the late 15th or early 16th century and is polygonal with elaborate pierced tracery to the top of the panels, which retain traces of original painted leaf-trail decoration.

Monuments include an incised alabaster slab with the effigy of a knight identified as Robert Brokesby, died 1531. A slate wall monument with shaped top commemorates William Stephens, died 1681, with an apron inscribed "Step. Staveley Melton fecit" and a limestone bracket with a winged cherub's head on a ball. Another slate wall monument with shaped top records William Stevens, died 1755, with a winged hourglass to the apron encircled by a serpent biting its tail and flanked by trumpets. A limestone wall plaque with a pedimented top records a gift of land by Reverend Rebel Kirkby in 1779.