Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with substantial restoration work carried out in 1887. It is constructed of limestone, with some ironstone rubble in the south aisle. The church comprises a west tower with a spire, a nave with a clerestory and two aisles, and a chancel.

The tower has three stages, with clasping buttresses, and features fragmentary carved panels in the second stage. Paired, foiled bell chamber lights are above, and the spire has a frieze and two tiers of lucarnes, topped with an embattled parapet to the south aisle, which is a later addition from 1887. Window tracery is in a Decorated and reticulated style. A half-timbered porch of 1908 incorporates a relocated 14th-century doorway with continuous moulding. The clerestory has three-light windows set within an embattled upper section. The chancel was extensively renewed, featuring Perpendicular and Decorated style south windows and a four-light Perpendicular style east window. The north aisle, also largely renewed, slightly clasps the chancel and retains a 14th-century east window of four lights with reticulated tracery, a hood mould with ball flower decoration, and corbel heads. Windows throughout the church are in the Decorated style, as is the north doorway, which is accessed via a coped gabled stone porch.

Internally, the restoration followed a “scrape” tradition. The tower is partially embraced by the aisles, with an early 14th-century arch leading to the nave, featuring semi-octagonal responds and capitals. A 15th-century arcade of four bays is present, characterised by slender clustered shafts and complex moulded arches, with outer hood moulds and corbel heads. The clerestory has three-light, foiled windows. The roof is of Perpendicular style, with shallow cambered tie beams and short, stumpy king posts carved as heads. The chancel arch is wide and double-chamfered, with one chamfer continuing to form a separate respond. Sedilia and a piscina are found in the south aisle, supported by octagonal shafts with round cinquefoiled arches. The chancel roof is likely from the 15th century, featuring cambered tie beams and king posts with decorative tracery filling the triangulation. The sedilia and piscina are either Victorian or heavily restored, mirroring the style of those near the south aisle. An ornate Victorian reredos with linen fold panelling, wrought decoration and angel figures is present, alongside a Victorian wood pulpit with a suspended sounding board. The font is probably 14th century, with a round basin and deeply moulded rim, supported on a base with trefoiled panels. Various 18th-century wall memorials are located in the chancel and south aisle. Stained glass includes depictions of love, truth, mercy, fortitude (in the 1887 south aisle east window), Christ with angels and seraphim (in a 1910 south east window), and “suffer the little children” (in a 1928 south west window), all highly decorated and coloured, likely from the same studio. A late 19th-century chancel east window contains stained glass personifying faith, charity, love, and hope, with illustrative scenes below and appropriate text, rendered in a Renaissance style with fluid design and predominantly white architectural backgrounds.