Church Of St. Peter

The Church of St Peter is a substantial medieval parish church with origins around 1300, later expanded and embellished in the 14th, 15th, 17th and 19th centuries. Constructed of ashlar, with some areas of rendering over ashlar dressings and lead roofs, the church has a cruciform plan comprising a west tower with spire, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, transepts, rectangular chancel and north vestry.

The tower rises in four stages, the two lower dating from around 1300 and the two upper from the 15th century. The lower stages are embraced by early 14th-century aisles and flanked by narrow buttresses of around 1300 which transition into broader 15th-century buttresses above. The west front of the first stage features a Y-traceried window with hood mould and prominent head label stops. The second stage has single small pointed lights on the west and south sides. The third stage contains small rectangular openings with single quatrefoils on the west, north and south sides. On the east side, the nave's original steep pitched roof line is visible. The bell chamber has openings on all four sides, each of two lights with a transom surmounted by a quatrefoil and with hood mould. A diamond frieze sits beneath the battlements. Ornate pinnacles and projecting gargoyles mark each corner. The 15th-century octagonal spire has two tiers of ornate lucarnes in alternating directions, crockets and a finial.

The north aisle has an early 14th-century west window of two cusped lights with intersecting ogee tracery, hood mould and head label stops. A corner buttress of three stages stands to the west. A moulded plinth and string course run the full length of the nave. On the aisle roof is a small bell turret, beneath which is a blocked 13th-century doorway with plain chamfered moulding, ornate foliated capitals and hood mould. East of the door are two early 14th-century windows, each of three lights with intersecting ogee tracery, hood moulds and label stop heads. Moulded eaves with corbel heads complete this elevation. The clerestorey has five narrow early 14th-century buttresses set between four windows; the three to the west are of three lights, that over the transept of two lights, all with intersecting tracery. Above are moulded eaves with corbel heads, a frieze of shields, battlements and ornate pinnacles.

The north transept has small 14th-century buttresses and a 15th-century moulded string course on the north and east sides. An early 14th-century window of three lights with intersecting ogee tracery, hood mould and head label stops is set in the east side. The 15th-century chancel was restored externally in the 19th century. It has a heavy moulded plinth and string course. Two large windows on both north and south sides each have three lights with ornate mouchettes above, hood moulds and head and grotesque animal label stops. Three buttresses each of three stages stand on the north and south sides. On the north side, the central and eastern buttresses are split to accommodate the 15th-century vestry fitting between them, so that the lower stages are some feet to the north of the upper stages against the wall. The vestry window to the east is pointed, with 19th-century tracery, hood mould and head label stops. A large pointed east window of five lights with Perpendicular tracery, hood mould and head label stops is flanked by two large buttresses of three stages. A small light sits in the gable, with coping and finial.

The 14th-century eastern nave gable has a 15th-century frieze of shields, battlements and pinnacles with empty niches set beneath. The original roof line of a chancel or earlier chancel is visible, with a blocked doorway above. In the south side of the chancel is a small elaborately moulded 15th-century doorway. In the west corners of the north and south transepts are parts of the 14th-century nave's eastern buttresses with fragmentary human and animal sculptures.

The east side of the south transept has a moulded string course running under a 15th-century window of three cusped ogee lights with continuous mullions, surmounted by six small cusped lights under a four-centred hood mould with ornate finial and head label stops. Battlements, ornate pinnacles and projecting gargoyles decorate the top. The south transept was probably remodelled in the 15th century from a detached Lady Chapel built around 1275. The south front is flanked by two 15th-century four-stage angle buttresses. Beneath the rendering is a fragmentary 13th-century plinth. The stub of a 13th-century buttress and a blocked and plastered 13th-century doorway with fragmentary label stops and the remnants of a 13th-century string course are all set beneath a large 15th-century window of four lights with ogee tracery and eight small trefoil-headed lights under four-centred hood moulds with olive branch and eagle label stops. The west side of the transept has a 15th-century moulded string course under a single 13th-century lancet with hood mould and simple label stops.

The south side of the aisle has a pronounced 15th-century plinth and string course and two large 14th-century windows, each of three cusped lights surmounted by intersecting ogees, hood moulds and head label stops. The 14th-century porch has 15th-century ornamentation, a moulded plinth and string course, angle buttresses of two stages with large projecting gargoyles and ornate pinnacles. The 14th-century moulded doorway has small semicircular responds with vigorously foliated capitals, hood mould and label stops. Above is a large 15th-century empty niche. Inside, the porch has stone benches and a corbel that once supported a lower roof, one with the date inscribed 1631. The 14th-century west door has columnar responds, vigorously foliated capitals, a moulded arch including a filleted roll and hood mould with head label stops. The 14th-century wooden door has blind ogee tracery, cusping and elaborate finials.

The south aisle west of the porch has a moulded plinth, string course and a 14th-century window with intersecting ogee tracery over three cusped lights, hood mould and head label stops. Corbel heads decorate the eaves. The south clerestorey has, to the east, a small early 14th-century window of two lights with intersecting ogee tracery. Over the transept, the original steep pitch of the transept roof is visible. To the west are three early 14th-century windows, each of three lights with Y-tracery, hood mould and head label stops. The windows are flanked by slender buttresses of two stages with ornate gables. Grotesque corbel heads decorate the eaves, above which runs a 15th-century frieze of shields, battlements and ornate pinnacles. The west window of the south aisle is of three lights with early 14th-century intersecting tracery.

Inside, the tower arch has triple responds with stiff leaf capitals on the south side and vigorously foliated capitals on the north side, a moulded pointed arch and head label stop intact to the south. Above the arch is evidence for an early roof line predating the early 14th-century clerestorey. The nave has three bays with a larger transept bay to the east. The piers of around 1300 comprise four shafts with vigorously foliated capitals alternating with four slender shafts without capitals or bases. The double-chamfered pointed arches have corbel heads in the spandrels. The early 14th-century clerestorey windows have hood moulds and head label stops. A 15th-century panelled wood ceiling with rosettes is supported on stone corbels.

The south wall of the south transept has three 13th-century sedilia and two aumbrys. The late 13th-century doorway is blocked to the west. On the west wall, next to the narrow 13th-century light with hood mould and head label stops, is the fragmentary hood mould of either a 13th-century blocked window or blind arcade. A string course runs beneath. The pointed double-chamfered early 14th-century chancel arch has caryatid figures on each side set on the triple responds with vigorously foliated capitals. A moulded string course runs beneath the chancel windows. In the south wall is an ornate 15th-century sedilia with ogee arches, cusping, crockets, shields, heads and battlements. To the east is a 15th-century piscina under a single cusped ogee arch. In the north wall is an aumbry with elaborate mouldings and filleted rolls. The doorway leading to the north vestry is richly moulded with fillets, hood mould and label stop heads. On the east wall a large corbel is set in the wall. The roof is 19th-century wooden construction.

The church retains an early 18th-century altar rail and a 14th-century screen of three panels, restored in the 19th century, with ogee tracery decorated with rosettes and a central four-centred arch with elaborate cusping. The 14th-century pulpit, also restored in the 19th century, has similar tracery and rosettes decorating five panels and a two-panelled door. It has an ornate octagonal hood and is supported by a large octagonal wooden column. The 14th-century hexagonal font has ogee-traceried panels, ornate gables and pinnacles. The pews are 19th-century. There are various small 18th and 19th-century monuments.