Church Of St Peter In Eastgate And Attached Boundary Wall

Church of St Peter in Eastgate and attached boundary wall

This church was built in 1870 to a design by Sir Arthur Blomfield. The chancel decoration was added in 1884 by Bodley. The south aisle dates from 1914 and was designed by Temple Moore, funded by Alfred Shuttleworth. The building is constructed in coursed squared stone and rockfaced ashlar with Westmorland slate roofs, combining Early English and early Decorated architectural styles.

The plan comprises a nave with a western bellcote, north and south aisles, a sacristy and vestry, a chancel, and a west porch.

The exterior features a chamfered plinth, moulded sill band, and coped gables with crosses. A single round stone stack serves the nave. The nave's west end has angle and central buttresses, with two 2-light windows featuring plate tracery and, above them, two round-headed niches with a circle between. A steep gabled single bellcote with a billeted impost band sits above, and a single lancet window is positioned to the south-west.

The north aisle spans four bays with buttresses and contains two lancets in each bay. The south aisle is gabled with seven bays and buttresses. It features a moulded doorway on its left, and to the right, six 3-light Decorated windows, all with hoodmoulds. The east end has a 5-light traceried window with an ogee hoodmould. The west end contains a central buttress flanked by stepped 3-light lancets on each side, with a 2-light plate tracery window above, flanked by single lancets.

The hipped sacristy has four lancets on its north side. The vestry has a parapet with a 2-light window to the east and a door to the north. The chancel spans four bays with coved eaves. Its south side features a central buttress and three single lancets with a linked impost band, and to the right, a 3-light flat-headed window. The east end has angle buttresses and a 3-light window with plate tracery and hoodmould.

The west porch has a four-centred arched doorway beneath a coped gable containing a niche. Single buttresses with pilasters flank either side; the left buttress has a pinnacle. The interior has a crested niche in each corner and an arch-braced common rafter roof.

The interior shows considerable architectural sophistication. The nave has a four-bay north arcade with round piers and double chamfered arches. The south arcade features quatrefoil piers with nook shafts, double hollow chamfered arches, and hoodmoulds. The easternmost bay contains an elaborate Perpendicular-style screen and canopy defining the choir. The nave has a painted barrel-vaulted wooden roof. Two 19th-century stained-glass windows occupy the west end; a south-west window dates from 1927. The choir has a stencil-decorated double-purlin scissor-braced roof.

The north aisle contains six stained-glass windows to the east, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and features a chamfered eastern arch with a wooden screen. It has an arch-braced double-purlin roof with wall shafts.

The south aisle has six stained-glass windows from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with round shafts between each pair. The east pier contains an ogee niche, and the south-east corner has a cusped piscina. The eastern bay features a Perpendicular-style screen defining the war memorial chapel, with memorial east windows dating from around 1920. The roof is arch-braced with strutted crown posts.

The chancel has a stencil-decorated double-chamfered arch with round shafts on corbels, and above it, a plain lancet. A continuous sill band runs along the north side, which features a traceried wrought-iron organ case with show pipes to the left, and an aumbry with a conical bracket to the right. The east end has a mosaic reredos and a stained-glass window by Ward & Hughes dating from 1875. The arch-braced roof sits on shield corbels and features panels and bosses with elaborate painted and gilt decoration.

The church contains 19th-century fittings including traceried stalls and desks, plain benches, a half-round traceried oak pulpit, and a round font on a clustered stem. A wooden font dates from 1970. Memorials include eight brasses ranging from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries.

The attached stone boundary wall to the street features a chamfered coping, two wrought-iron gates, and eight piers. A plainer wall to the east has a half-round stone coping. The walls measure approximately 70 metres by 50 metres in length.