Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Parish church in Normanby-le-Wold, mostly early 13th century with early 14th-century additions, restored in 1868 by James Fowler. The building is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble and ironstone ashlar with slate roofs decorated with ornamental ridge tiles.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, north porch, rectangular chancel, and north vestry.

The west tower has three early 13th-century stages with a fourth stage added in the early 14th century. Squat clasping buttresses on the north-west and south-west corners rise to the top of the first stage, while north-east and south-east buttresses from the early 13th century are partially visible. The west front's first stage contains a single pointed light with a stringcourse of rectangular profile running above it. The second stage on the south side has a narrow rectangular light. A stringcourse with rectangular profile divides the second and third stages. The third stage has twin narrow pointed openings on the west, north and south sides, each divided by a weathered polygonal support set far back. The early 14th-century fourth stage features a moulded stringcourse running beneath bell-openings on all four sides. Each bell-opening is a pointed arch divided by two cusped ogee-headed lights with quatrefoils, all with hood-moulds. The west and south bell-openings are much restored, while the north and east are partially restored. Moulded eaves with projecting corner gargoyles, battlements and ornate corner pinnacles crown the tower.

The north aisle is mostly 19th century. Its west side has a single plain 19th-century lancet, with angle buttresses of two stages and a coped gable above with moulded terminations. The 19th-century north porch has a plinth and projecting angle buttresses, with a pointed north doorway featuring chamfered jambs, moulded arch, hood-mould with foliated label stops and a corbel head above. It is topped by a coped gable with ornate terminations and a finial. An early 14th-century interior north door has a double-chamfered arch and jambs, a heavily restored inner order and hood-mould with weathered label stops, and a 19th-century plank door. To the east within the aisle is a 19th-century pointed window with two cusped lights and an oculus beneath a hood-mould with foliated label stops. Beyond this is a two-stage ashlar-dressed buttress with a three-light window under a four-centred head with hood-mould and foliated label stops. Another ashlar-dressed two-stage buttress to the east is topped by a coped gable with moulded termination, above which stands a large ornate ashlar-dressed chimney. The north vestry, by Fowler, has a plinth and a north-facing door to the east with a Caernarfon arch and plank door. Angle buttresses of two stages with pronounced plinths project to the east and north. The east end of the vestry has a plinth and a pointed window with two cusped lights, a quatrefoil, hood-mould and foliated label stops, essentially 19th century but reusing some 13th-century fragments.

The 19th-century chancel has a plinth and moulded stringcourse that rises to run at a higher level over the east front beneath the east window. This window, by Fowler and reusing 14th-century masonry, features two lights each divided by cusped lights with trefoils set in mouchettes, with hood-mould and ornate label stops. Two-stage angle buttresses with plinths flank it, and an open gable with a finial surmounts the window. The south side of the chancel has two windows separated by a two-stage buttress with plinth. Each window has two cusped lights with a trefoil above under a pointed head, with hood-mould and foliated label stops. The western window is longer than the eastern one and has a lower stringcourse.

The south aisle of the nave dates to the early 13th century and features an ashlar-dressed plinth and a south-projecting angle buttress. A 19th-century window to the east has three cusped lights under a four-centred head with hood-mould and foliated label stops. A single-stage early 13th-century buttress to the west has a 19th-century set-off, with the plinth terminating at the buttress. An early 13th-century plate-traceried window of two cusped lights with a quatrefoil above under a pointed head has some cusps restored in the 19th century and a hood-mould above. An early 13th-century blocked doorway to the west has moulded jambs (with a fragmentary palmette capital on the east jamb), moulded imposts (the western one damaged), and a pointed head with a single roll moulding and hood-mould. A three-stage angle buttress with plinth stands beyond it, topped by a coped gable to the south with moulded termination. The west side of the south aisle has a single tall 19th-century lancet.

The interior features a small early 13th-century tower arch with a double-chamfered pointed head, polygonal responds with plain moulded capitals and polygonal abaci. A narrow early 13th-century corbel head is set above. The early 13th-century north and south responds are partially restored by Fowler. Each of three bays has a pointed double-chamfered arch springing from a variety of supports, with the arches at the north-west, south-west, north-east and south-east dying away into the wall. The first pair of north and south piers to the east are octagonal with unusual looped corbels in the spandrels supporting the outer order. The second pair of piers on the north and south sides are large rectangular blocks with chamfered corners, also supporting single double-chamfered pointed arches reaching over the north and south aisles. The southern example is 13th century and is supported on the south wall by a large corbel of a grimacing man with toothache. The northern one is by Fowler and is supported on the north wall by an ornate foliated corbel. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch has its inner order supported by moulded corbels and is topped by a pointed hood-mould with foliated label stops. The north wall of the chancel has a large 19th-century recess for the organ with a double-chamfered pointed arch and a small vestry door to the east with a chamfered surround. An ornate 19th-century aumbry stands to the east. A filleted stringcourse runs above and over the east wall and onto the south at a lower level, with ornate foliated terminations. The east window is flanked by nook shafts, and the east window on the south wall has a recess below forming a sedilia.

Furnishings and fittings include late 19th and early 20th-century pews, altar rail, lectern and pulpit, and 19th-century roofs. An ornate marble 19th-century reredos features turrets, battlements, crockets, finials, inset mosaic and marble work. A 14th-century octagonal stone font rests on a 19th-century moulded base, its panels containing quatrefoils with ribbon and diamond decoration. Three large late 19th-century oil paintings depict the lives of St Peter and Christ. A 16th-century gravestone in the south aisle shows a face and praying hands seen through a large quatrefoil as if through an opening in a coffin lid.