Church Of St Peter And St Paul

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is a parish church dating to around 1360, possibly originally commissioned for John of Gaunt. It suffered damage during the Civil War and was restored in 1866 by James Fowler of Louth, and again in 1889. The church is constructed from squared greenstone rubble with limestone ashlar details, and has Westmorland slate roofs. The nave, originally the south aisle of a 14th-century church, now incorporates a north aisle and a north-western tower. The west end of the nave features stepped corner buttresses and a large 4-light 14th-century window with flowing tracery, surmounted by a quatrefoil. The three-stage tower has stepped corner buttresses, a plinth, three moulded string courses, an embattled parapet, four corner and four central pinnacles with panelled sides and crockets, and 2-light bell openings with cusped ogee heads. A continuously moulded doorway is flanked by a 4-light 15th-century window featuring brattishing and panel tracery, with large animal head label stops, topped by an ogee-headed niche. The 19th-century north aisle has three 2-light rectangular-headed windows with ogee heads to the lights, a pointed vestry doorway, and a tall rectangular chimney. An east-facing window in 14th-century style is positioned at the east end of the aisle. The east end of the nave has a large 5-light window with fine flowing tracery and a deeply moulded head. The south side of the nave displays three 3-light windows, each featuring cusped heads to the lights and flowing tracery. A gabled 19th-century porch has a moulded pointed outer doorway with demi shafts. The inner doorway is 14th-century, with a moulded pointed head and demi shafts with foliate capitals. To the east side of the porch is a holy water stoup on an octagonal pillar with a cusped and crocketed canopy. Above the porch doorway is a large blank quatrefoil and two figured corbels. Internally, a 14th-century 4-bay nave arcade provides access to the north aisle, with tall continuously moulded pointed arches, filleted orders, and moulded bases. A small 19th-century pointed doorway leads to the tower. A large grotesque head is built into a wall within the tower. Also in the tower are remnants of a fireplace with a four-centred head, above which is an inscribed tablet commemorating a charity given by John Aldred, Rector, in 1653. Two small pointed openings are positioned at the east end of the nave. On the south wall is an ornate 14th-century sedilia with crocketed pinnacles and a nodding ogee canopy, followed by a piscina. A further, plainer piscina and a small statue bracket are located further down the south wall. Fittings are primarily 19th-century, except for the 14th-century octagonal font, which has an elaborate stem with clustered chamfered shafts and pyramidal stepped bases.