Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

Parish church, medieval in origin but substantially rebuilt in 1887-8 by Bell and Roper of Manchester. The building retains part of its original medieval tower.

The church is constructed in rock face ashlar and ashlar with plain tile roofs. It comprises a north-west tower, nave, west porch, aisles, south porch with stair turret, south vestry with porch and stair turret, north organ chamber and chancel. All principal elements are set on a chamfered plinth and are buttressed.

The tower rises in two stages set on a chamfered plinth with a moulded band above. It is embattled with a corbel table, and is topped by a spire with four lucarnes. The west face displays a single window with two cinquefoil arched lights under a flat arch, above which is a single trefoil arched light and a further two-light window with cusped tracery. The north side contains a similar two-light window with a single rectangular stair light below. The east side retains the remains of a similar two-light window. The bell chamber on each side has a pair of panels, each containing two cinquefoil blind arches, over which extends a band of fleuron decoration. Above this are single pairs of two-light arched openings with cusped tracery. Clock faces appear on the east and south sides.

The gabled west chancel has blind cinquefoil arched panels over the buttresses. The west porch is a shallow lean-to structure. Its entrance has chamfered jambs and a moulded pointed arch with hood mould and label stops. The spandrels are decorated with shields and brattishing extends over the doorway. Within, an inner pair of segmental arched doorways is divided by a single colonette with fillet and decorative capital supporting a carved figure set into a cinquefoil arched niche and flanked by single decorative quatrefoils. Above the porch rises a large five-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould with label stops and decorative finial, flanked by single small arched and cusped lights.

The north aisle is embattled with six crocketed pinnacles. Its east wall contains five arched three-light windows with flowing tracery and a continuous sill band broken by buttresses. The east wall features a single similar window with a small decorative quatrefoil above.

The north organ chamber projects from the chancel. It is coped and gabled, with a band following the line of the gable and a single circle containing three mouchettes in the apex of the north side.

The chancel is embattled with moulded band over the plinth. The east wall has single crocketed pinnacles at the angles with four small gargoyles below each, and blind traceried panels. A single arched seven-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould with decorative label stops and decorative finial occupies the centre, with a single arched and cusped light with hood mould and finial in the apex. The north and south walls each contain three three-light windows with cusped tracery under a flat arch. The south chancel corresponds to the north.

The south vestry projects from the chancel with an embattled east wall containing a single window with two cinquefoil arched lights under a flat arch. The gabled south wall has a band following the line of the gable and contains two similar windows, with a single circle containing three mouchettes above. An attached octagonal embattled stair turret with blind traceried panelling under the embattlements stands to the left, featuring three rectangular lights.

The south aisle is embattled with six crocketed pinnacles. A projecting porch has brattishing to the parapet and a frieze of fleuron beneath. The porch contains a single window with two trefoil arched lights under a flat arch, and to its left is a moulded pointed arched doorway. Above are remains of a single arched three-light window with flowing tracery, followed to the left by four similar windows. A continuous sill band is broken by buttresses. Further left stands a two-storey coped, gabled porch with a single ridge cross. Angle buttresses are surmounted by panels with blind tracery and crocketed pinnacles. The doorway has chamfered jambs and a moulded arch decorated with fleuron, with hood mould and label stops. Spandrels are decorated with diaper work. Above is a single window with two cinquefoil arched lights under a flat arch; the remainder of this wall features blind traceried panelling. The east and west walls each have a single similar two-light window. An inner chamfered arched doorway provides access. An attached octagonal embattled stair turret with blind traceried panelling under the embattlements and two rectangular lights stands to the left. The gabled west wall of the south aisle has a single arched three-light window with flowing tracery, a continuous sill band, and a single decorative quatrefoil in the apex.

Interior

The nave comprises six bays on the south and five bays on the north with moulded and chamfered arches lacking capitals but featuring hood moulds. Moulded and chamfered nave and aisle/tower arches are present. The chancel arch is double chamfered with a rood screen above.

North aisle and south aisle moulded arches with hood moulds enclose two inner chamfered arches each fitted with traceried wooden screens. A single circle containing a decorative quatrefoil occupies the spandrel.

The chancel contains a three-bay arcade with moulded arches, with the right bay blocked. A similar chancel/vestry arcade is present, with the right two bays fitted with wooden traceried screens and the left single bay containing sedilia and piscina with cusped arches over, ogee hood moulds and decorative finials.

Decorative panels with two shields flank the west doorway. A decorative altar table is present. Panelled walls extend throughout the nave and aisles. A nineteenth-century octagonal ashlar font stands in the church, as does a fourteenth-century octagonal ashlar font on an octagonal pedestal. The chancel features a wooden barrel vault with decorative coloured roof, while the nave has a roof with blind traceried wooden panelling.