Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a Grade I listed parish church on the east side of Main Street in Normanby by Spital, now vested in the Redundant Churches Fund. The building dates from the 12th century (around 1200) through to the 15th century, with a substantial restoration undertaken in 1890. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, banded in places with ironstone, with ashlar dressings and lead roofs.

The church comprises a western tower, a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, and a chancel.

The unbuttressed 12th-century tower has three stages and is distinguished by a single weathered chevron string course and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles and gargoyles. Two pieces of chevron-decorated ashlar survive in the south side of the tower—one to the left of the round-headed first floor window and another near the angle with the south aisle. The west wall contains a further fragment of 12th-century masonry and a 13th-century lancet. The paired belfry lights on the south and west sides have 15th-century hood moulds, while the north side displays paired 14th-century belfry lights with ogee heads, hood moulds, and one surviving human head label stop.

In the north-west angle of the nave stands a large vertical stone used as a quoin, possibly a reused cross shaft. The west wall of the north aisle contains a small 12th-century round-headed light. A blocked north doorway has a chamfered surround and lintel, with several large pieces of ashlar visible in a line above it. Further east are a pair of 13th-century lancets with simple chamfered surrounds. The east window of the aisle is also a lancet, though it was recut in the 19th century. The lower parts of an arch opening into a now vanished north chapel are visible in this wall, with a blocked archway in the chancel providing its other entrance. The east wall of the chancel is constructed in banded ironstone and limestone and contains a 19th-century two-light window.

The earlier steep pitches of the nave roof are visible in the east walls of the nave and tower. At the east end, the upstanding foundations of an apse can be seen. The south wall of the chancel shows, from the line of quoins, that the chancel was lengthened by approximately 2 feet. This wall features a 14th-century two-light window with trefoil heads to the lights and a cinquefoil above, all under a hood mould. The south aisle was rebuilt in 1890 and has paired ogee-headed lights in its east wall; the south wall contains reset 14th-century paired lights with ogee heads, chamfered square surrounds, and hood moulds. The south doorway is a 19th-century copy of a 14th-century pointed and moulded doorway. The clerestory on the north and south sides has paired lights with trilobe heads and square chamfered surrounds.

Internally, the two-bay north arcade, dating to around 1200, has circular piers and responds with square spurred bases and abaci decorated with elaborate stiff leaf capitals. The single chamfered round arches feature rounded stops and chamfered hood moulds. The south arcade has circular piers, responds, bases and abaci with formal stiff leaf capitals supporting 13th-century double-chamfered pointed arches. The tower arch dates to around 1200 and has a semi-circular head with plastered reveals and ashlar chamfered imposts. The chancel arch has late 12th-century semi-circular imposts with stiff leaf capitals and a 13th-century double-chamfered arch. To the south of the chancel arch in the east wall of the nave is a blocked squint opening to the south aisle chapel. Three trusses in the south aisle are reused 16th-century timbers; the remainder of the roofing dates from the 19th century.

The furnishings include a 17th-century altar table at the east end of the north aisle, which has turned legs. A painted donations board dated 1767 is mounted on the west wall of the nave. All other fittings are 19th-century, including a cast iron tortoise stove from Halstead, Essex, and two oil lamps on brass brackets in the aisles. The font is late 12th-century, shaped like a mortar with four vertical bands, one of which terminates in a shield, and stands on a 19th-century base.