Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant additions and a late 14th-century rebuilding. It was restored in 1871-2 by F.R. Kempson. The church is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and has tiled roofs. It comprises a west tower, a nave with a north aisle (incorporating a former north transept to the east), a vestry to the east, a south aisle (including a south transept to the east), and a chancel with a south chapel.

The west tower is late 14th century, featuring three stages, a moulded plinth, two string courses, and an embattled parapet with stepped diagonal buttressing. It has a single trefoil-headed light in a square surround to the second stage, and a two-light window with trefoil ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil to the bell stage. The west entrance is a 4-centred arch within a square head, with cusped spandrels. The south front of the nave displays two gables of the south aisle and former south transept, each featuring a three-light window dating to the 19th century. A reset semi-circular headed light is set into the west return of the south aisle. The north transept retains a restored late 14th-century window with three trefoiled, ogee-headed lights. The chancel has a 19th-century chapel to the south, with a trefoil-headed light to the left of its gable, and two larger, similar lights with a continuous label; a roundel is in the gable. A partially blocked 13th-century window with a single trefoil-headed light is positioned to the right of the chapel. The north front of the chancel retains four restored and partially altered single trefoil-headed lights.

Inside, the nave has a trussed rafter roof, likely from the 19th century, and four-bay arcades to both north and south. Further 19th-century two-bay arcades align north/south, dividing the north aisle and north transept, and the south aisle and transept. The tower arch is a two-order design, with a moulded inner order and a hollow-chamfered outer order, both dating to the 19th century. Also from the 19th century is the chancel arch. The church also contains 19th-century fittings. Monuments include a large freestone monument to William Reed, Sheriff and J.P., dated 1634, located against the south wall of the west tower. This monument has a base, an effigy, a canopy, four kneeling figures in contemporary dress at the base, a semi-reclining effigy, a semi-circular surround to the rear panel with an inscription panel and decorative detail, coats of arms above the inscription and in spandrels, and is supported by Ionic columns with an entablature. A wall tablet to Jane Best, dated 1622, with a brass inscription plate and a columned wooden surround is on the south wall of the south aisle. A wall monument to John Best, dated 1637, depicting a stone demi-figure preaching in clerical costume above a rectangular inscription panel with a slate inset, is located on the south wall of the south transept.