Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

Parish church. The building dates from the 13th century and 15th century, with significant work undertaken in 1858 and restoration carried out in 1885 by G. Somers Clarke Jnr. It is constructed of dressed coursed rubble and ashlar with slate roofs. A single stack rises to the east of the nave. The east gable is coped with a single cross finial.

The church comprises a tower, nave, aisles, north vestry, south porch and chancel, all buttressed.

The low 13th-century tower occupies the west side and is set on a shallow plinth. It is of two stages with bands and is angle buttressed. The top is finished with 19th-century embattlements. The west wall features an arched, re-cut, three-light window with intersecting tracery, hood mould and head label stops, with evidence of an earlier arched opening above it. Above this is a single lancet. The north and south sides each have a large blocked chamfered arch with evidence of an earlier arch flanked by single corbels; the north side has two further corbels. Above, on both north and south sides, are single lancets, and on the south side a single rectangular opening sits above this. The east wall shows evidence of an earlier nave.

The north aisle's north wall is set on a moulded plinth with a string course above. It contains a blocked pointed chamfered arched doorway. To the left are two arched windows, each with three 15th-century arched and cusped lights, partly re-cut. The clerestory holds three similar windows. The vestry sits on a chamfered plinth and is coped at the east with a kneeler. It has a single 19th-century two-light cusped window under a flat arch. The east wall contains a moulded arched doorway with plank door and small shield above. The north chancel has a single arched 15th-century window with three cusped lights. The angle buttressed east end sits on a chamfered plinth and displays a single 19th-century window with three cusped lights, tracery, hood mould, head label stops and finial, with a string course running beneath. In the gable apex is a single blind recessed quatrefoil panel. The south chancel contains a single arched 19th-century window with two cusped lights, tracery, hood mould and label stops, and to the left a single 15th-century arched window with three cusped and arched lights. The south aisle has coped east and west parapets and sits on a shallow chamfered plinth to east and south. The east wall displays a single 15th-century three-light window, smaller than others, with two similar windows in the south wall. The diagonally buttressed porch has a coped gable with decorative kneelers and is set on a chamfered plinth. It is dated 1858. The double chamfered arched entrance has its inner chamfer supported on foliate corbels. The hood mould features decorative label stops and bears a dated shield above. The chamfered arched inner doorway has a 19th-century hood mould with decorative label stops. The clerestory corresponds to that on the north side.

Interior

The three-bay 13th-century nave arcades have octagonal piers with moulded capitals and double chamfered arches. Hood moulds run over the nave sides with 19th-century figurative label stops. The north-west and south-east capitals are decorated with nailhead moulding. The north-east and south-west capitals are plain and moulded. All capitals are supported on carved human heads. The double chamfered tower arch has a hood mould over it with 19th-century foliate label stops. The chancel arch is double chamfered. In the south chancel wall is a piscina, and in the north wall an arched vestry doorway.

The font is 19th-century with elaborate diaper moulding to the sides and carved lilies underneath. A restored early 17th-century pulpit features decorative panels. The decorative rear panel and two wild-man head brackets support the decorative tester. The base of a 16th-century oak chest survives, as does a further 16th-century panelled oak chest with stylised and heavily moulded decoration to each panel. Remaining furniture is 19th-century. In the south chancel is a monument to Elizabethae and I. Shilleto, dated 1782. An early 14th-century knight in sunk relief is depicted with a band decorated with a heraldic shield running across the body, so that only the top part and feet resting on a dog are visible. The nave roof with bosses is panelled and is 19th-century.