Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Easthope

This is a medieval church substantially rebuilt after a serious fire in 1928 by the architects Nicholson & Clarke of Hereford. The church is constructed of local rubble siltstone with freestone dressings, under graded stone-tile roofs. It comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, a west belfry, south porch, and north vestry. The churchyard is circular and set away from the village, suggesting an early ecclesiastical origin, with the earliest datable features being 14th-century chancel windows.

The exterior displays a mixture of Gothic and domestic Tudor windows. The nave south wall contains a three-light square-headed mullioned-and-transomed window, a post-1928 replacement for an earlier wood-mullioned window. The 16th-century three-light square-headed west window is one of the few features to survive the fire. The north side of the nave has a small window and an external stone chimney. The chancel features a cusped pointed south window and a two-light Decorated east window. A priests' door with limestone surround, including a large lintel, is in the north wall of the chancel. The south porch has a segmental arch with wooden gates and an added open-fronted lean-to set back on its left side, which obscures one of the original bullseye side windows. The south doorway has a depressed arch with a surround of imported tufa. The timber-framed belfry is painted black with white rendered panels and has a pyramidal roof, with paired louvered bell openings in each face. The north vestry has a three-light north window.

Internally, the walls are of exposed stonework. A continuous five-bay collar-beam roof with two purlins each side (plastered behind) spans the nave and chancel, with a sixth bay to the west containing a panelled bell chamber. The floor comprises small flagstones with boarded floors beneath the pews. The porch contains reclaimed encaustic tiles.

Several furnishings were rescued from the original church. A 18th-century communion rail with turned balusters spans the chancel. On the south wall next to the pulpit is a rare wrought-iron hour-glass stand dated 1662 with the initials SS, commemorating Samuel Steadman, the incumbent. The stand is fixed to the wall by an iron bracket. The chancel screen, dated 1931 on a plaque, comprises three bays with open-arcaded dado to the wider outer bays and ogee-headed tracery in the main lights beneath cornice and brattishing. The central bay has projecting pinnacles surmounted by angels and an ogee arch surmounted by a cross. An octagonal font stands on a broad pedestal and base. The freestone polygonal pulpit features open Gothic panelling and marble shafts. The pews have plain ends with sunk quatrefoils incorporated into the arm rests. A metal memorial plaque commemorates Colonel George Benson, killed in the Boer War in 1900.

Two stained-glass windows are by Kempe & Tower. The east window depicts the Annunciation and was originally by C.E. Kempe; it was rescued from the fire and restored and reinstated in 1937. The chancel south window, showing the Crucifixion, dates from 1933.

The fire of 1928 was serious and resulted in substantial reconstruction, though the positions of windows remained generally the same and the rebuild was executed in a conservative, rather Arts and Crafts manner. The church retains considerable interest as a medieval structure substantially renewed in the early 20th century.