Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with 19th-century additions. It was restored in 1855 by Gilbert Scott. The building is constructed of ashlar and features a single cross to the east chancel parapet and embattled parapets throughout.

The church comprises a tower, nave, north porch, north rood stair turret, south aisle and chancel. The 14th-century tower has three stages with bands, set on a deep chamfered plinth with a heavy moulded band above. Angle buttresses rise to diagonal buttresses. The parapet has eight pinnacles decorated with blind tracery and crocketed finials, with two gargoyles to each side. The west wall has a moulded pointed arched doorway with a heavy panelled door, hood mould and label stops. Above is a 19th-century pointed arched window of three lights with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and label stops. The bell chamber has four arched openings, each with two blind arched and cusped panels surmounted by a single transom and two similar lights with mouchettes over and hood mould. There is a single rectangular stair light to the north side and five similar lights to the south.

The gabled north porch has a lead roof, single ridge cross and clasping buttresses, set on a chamfered plinth. It has a moulded pointed arched entrance with hood mould and worn label stops. The west wall has two arched and cusped lights and an inner moulded arched doorway. To the left is a single large ashlar buttress, and further left is an arched window of three lights from the 15th century with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and label stops.

A band marks the junction of the nave and 15th-century clerestory, where there are four arched windows each with three arched and cusped lights and continuous hood mould broken by the buttress. At the east angle is an attached tall circular rood stair turret set on a plinth. It has two stages with a band and two small rectangular lights.

A moulded band extends around the chancel below sill level. The north wall has two gargoyles and two windows each with three arched lights under a flat arch, with two remaining earlier human head label stops. The diagonally buttressed east end has a 19th-century arched window with five arched and cusped lights. The south wall has a single gargoyle and a central doorway with moulded surround and cambered arch flanked by single windows each with three arched lights under a flat arch.

The south aisle is on a chamfered plinth. Its east wall has a single window with three arched lights under a flat arch. The south wall has three similar windows and to the left a chamfered arched blocked doorway with imposts and hood mould. To the left is a flat-roofed ashlar extension. The west wall of the south aisle has a single similar window. The clerestory corresponds to the north.

Interior

The interior has a four-bay 13th-century nave arcade with octagonal columns and moulded capitals that project north and south to accommodate fleur-de-lys label stops of the outer chamfer of the double chamfered arches. At the east and west are moulded capitals supported on decorative corbels. The low double chamfered 13th-century chancel arch has an inner chamfer supported on capitals decorated with nailhead, in turn supported on decorative corbels. The moulded tower arch is supported each side on responds of triple shafts with moulded capitals, with a hood mould and label stops over.

The north nave wall has at clerestory level a blocked rood loft arch, below which a chamfered arched doorway leads to the rood turret. The south aisle south wall has an arched piscina. The chancel and nave roofs have decorative bosses, and the chancel roof is supported on decorative painted corbels.

The furniture is predominantly 19th-century except for a few 18th-century pews, two 17th-century stools and a 17th-century decoratively panelled chest with two panels decorated with arcading.

Monuments include a fine early 14th-century monument of a priest with chalice in the south chancel wall, comprising a demi-figure set into a quatrefoil with triangular crocketed hood mould and finial over. In the north chancel is an early 14th-century figure of a priest with his head on a diagonally placed pillow held by two angels. In the south aisle is a monument of circa 1400 depicting a knight with sword and shield, probably Sir Bertram Manboucher. In the north nave is a 14th-century floor slab decorated with a stylised sword. A wall monument in the south aisle to John and Eleanor Bailey dated 1828 is surmounted by an urn. There is a plain tablet to George and Mary Admigall and Thomas Barker dated 1801.