Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Peterstow

Parish church dating from the 12th to 15th centuries, possibly incorporating Anglo-Saxon remains. The building underwent substantial restoration and alteration in the 19th century and mid-20th century. It is constructed of sandstone rubble and ashlar with tiled roofs.

The church consists of a small west tower overlapping the west end of a four-bay nave, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry and south porch.

The west tower is probably 15th-century and protrudes from the nave. It has a deep moulded and chamfered plinth with a string course above. Two major external stages are present, with the bell-chamber stage diminished on its west side by an offset at the level of the nave roof apex. Above the bell-chamber is another string course, an embattled parapet, and an octagonal spire. The bell-chamber has one two-light trefoiled opening under a square head on the south and west sides, and one square-headed opening to the north.

The nave's north wall is reported by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to be partly pre-Conquest, based on enormous stones at its west end. This wall contains three trefoil-headed single-light windows and towards the west end a small round-headed 12th-century window. A buttress stands between the easternmost and next light to the west. The 19th-century vestry has angle buttresses. The west doorway is moulded with a two-centred head and label, partly obscured by a buttress. On the east side is a two-light window with a two-centred head, quatre-foil tracery and label, with lights running up to blind ogees in the tympanum above the glazing, and a stack to the north gable.

The chancel features a high-set two-light ogeed and trefoiled east window with deeply cusped quatre-foil tracery in a two-centred head. The south wall has two single-light windows with ogeed and trefoiled heads and chamfered surrounds, between which is a blocked priest's door. The south side of the nave is divided from the chancel by a buttress. To the west of this are a pair of 19th-century chamfered lancets, and to the east of the porch one lancet of largely 13th-century, unrestored character; to its west is a restored lancet.

The south porch is probably circa 1900 and timber-framed on a sandstone plinth. Three principal trusses are cusped to form trefoils. The front has a cambered collar beam on arch-braces carried on inner posts tied back to the wall-plate, supported by outer posts. The tie-beam supports a cusped king-strut and two angle struts with a trefoiled pattern on the bargeboards. Six open upper side panels within cinquefoiled heads on each return are positioned above a pair of side benches. The south doorway, probably 14th-century, is chamfered with a two-centred head and pyramidal stops to the base of the jambs.

The interior contains scissor-braces, some bolted, perhaps 14th-century and restored, to the nave roof. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof. The 13th-century chancel arch is altered, featuring a two-centred arch with double chamfers and a moulded label above half-round responds with later foliated capitals.

The chancel contains a 14th-century piscina on the south side with a recessed trefoiled head and circular drain. North of the altar is a former circular font bowl with a cusped underside, removed from and then restored to the church. A brass cross on the altar commemorates William and Maria Davis, who died in 1870 and 1861 respectively. To the north side is a chair probably 19th-century, with turned bobbin balusters and rails in 13th-century style.

The east window contains stained glass depicting the Crucifixion and Benediction as a memorial to George Israel Pellew, Rector (died 1897), with the inscription: "In that he died unto sin once. In that he liveth he liveth unto God". The north window shows Christ washing the feet of a disciple with the inscription "I have given you an example". The east window of the south wall commemorates John Jebb, Rector (died 1886), and a window further west memorialises Frederick Leonard Woodall (1903).

An organ to the north side is probably early 20th-century, restored in 1970. To its west is a wall plaque in brass for Thomas Ross, Rector (died 1712) and his wife Susanna (died 1692). A 19th-century doorway to the vestry has a two-centred head and roll moulding.

The vestry contains a diagonal passageway to the nave and pulpit, a drainage plan of the church and churchyard dated 1972, and photographs of rectors from 1886 onwards. It also holds a portrait sketch of John Jebb, Rector until 1886, by W Smith, London, signed 1854 "faithfully yours / John Jebb", and a photograph taken in 1919 of a portrait of an earlier rector, the Reverend Charles Maitland Babington (1810–41).

The nave contains a late 19th-century brass lectern and an early 17th-century pulpit, partly hexagonal with Ionic capitals, arcaded and dentilled upper panels, reached from the vestry by a 19th-century moulded arch with a two-centred head. South of the chancel arch is a fragment of a coffin lid with a foliated cross and circular design. The north window at the east end of the nave contains stained glass depicting Christ with the inscription "THIS IS MY BELOVED SON HEAR HIM". To its west is a triangular-headed marble wall monument for James Matthews (died 1840). A reset bearded head-stop from a label, perhaps 13th-century, stands between the west wall and the westernmost window of the north wall.

The font is 15th-century with an octagonal chamfered base, plain octagonal stem, and octagonal bowl chamfered on the underside. The west wall has an exposed zone of coursed sandstone with a squint from the tower, reported by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to be a blocked square-headed opening to the tower.