Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a parish church dating back to around 1200, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The chancel was demolished in 1706 and the church was restored in 1858 and 1898. It is constructed of ashlar and squared coursed limestone rubble, with some red brick detailing, and has slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises a western tower, a nave with a clerestory, aisles, a south porch, and a vestry. The four-stage 14th-century tower has stepped angle buttresses, plain offsets, and an embattled parapet. The belfry stage features single broad three-light windows with cusped heads and concave chamfered surrounds, while below are single two-light Y-tracery windows. The west window is pointed with a chamfered surround, hood, and human head stops. The north aisle has a lead roof and a 15th-century panel-traceried window to the east and west, with four two-light 14th-century flowing-traceried windows along the north side. A brick gabled 19th-century vestry has a pointed door and lights. The nave’s slate roof is topped by a 13th-century clerestory of two paired windows and a single triplet of cusped lights. The east wall of the nave contains a blocked semi-circular arch with the inscription "WA 1757" on the keystone. An intersecting traceried three-light 13th-century window is set into the east wall of the south aisle. The south side has four 14th-century windows mirroring those on the north, and a west window matching the north aisle’s west window. The gabled 14th-century south porch has a double-shafted outer doorway with quatrefoils at the base and annular capitals, a double-moulded arch with fleurons and a hood mould with lion stops. Inside the porch are side benches and quatrefoil side lights, and the inner door is continuously moulded with a hood featuring human head stops. A 18th-century panelled door leads into the church. To the right of the door is an ogee-headed niche.

Internally, the church has six-bay arcades dating to around 1200, with round shafts, spurred bases, stiff leaf capitals, and double-chamfered arches. The 14th-century tower arch has engaged triple shafts with foliate capitals and a triple-chamfered arch. A cusped ogee-headed piscina is in the south aisle, and a similar niche is in the north aisle. Fittings include a full set of 15th-century benches with poppyhead ends and panel traceried rear panels. The elaborate octagonal 15th-century font has a panelled stem and bowl featuring fleurons in cusped panels with beast head embellishments. It is covered by a 19th-century conical wooden cover with freestyle carving and a brattished rim. Monuments include two 15th-century ledger slabs at the east end of the nave, and a small brass depicting a cripple with his crutch in the north chapel, commemorating William Palmer, who died in 1520.