Church Of St Peter

Church of Saint Peter

This is a parish church standing on an earlier site. The tower dates from around 1634 and was built by John Dod, possibly incorporating earlier elements at the base to the south. The main church was rebuilt in 1744 by William Cooper, as recorded by a datestone and churchwarden's accounts. The chancel was rebuilt in 1747. The whole building was restored in 1857-8, and the chancel was further "beautified" with a vestry and organ chamber added in 1877, as noted by a brass plaque in the chancel.

The church is constructed of dressed red sandstone with grey sandstone ashlar dressings. The west tower is built of dressed yellow and grey sandstone with ashlar dressings and 20th-century tile patching. The roofs are of plain tile. The building comprises a 4-bay nave and 2-bay chancel in one range with a north porch, a 4-bay south aisle, a west tower, and a south-east vestry and organ chamber. The 19th-century restoration and additions are executed in an early 14th-century Gothic style.

The tower has three stages. It has a moulded plinth, chamfered offsets with diagonal buttresses that are themselves chamfered, a moulded parapet string with gargoyles at the corners, a chamfered battlemented plinth, and a pyramidal cap with weathervane. The belfry openings are chamfered with 2-light louvred windows featuring Y-tracery and returned hoodmoulds. Tall chamfered staircase windows pierce the west face. A west window was inserted around 1858, comprising 3 trefoil-headed lights with cusped Geometrical tracery, chamfered reveals and hoodmould with carved stops. A 17th-century doorway with chamfered reveals is located in the second stage to the south (possibly a former access to the aisle roof), and a 19th-century door with strap hinges and chamfered head is on the north side. A clock occupies the second stage to the north.

The nave and chancel have a moulded plinth and moulded cill string. A coved 18th-century cornice runs to the right, with a 19th-century cornice to the left decorated with ballflower and other ornament. The gable ends are parapeted with chamfered copings and gabled kneelers. A cross stands on the east apex, and ridge cresting runs along the roof. Angle buttresses flank the east end. The windows comprise 1 window on the north side and 3 on the south, all 19th-century works of 2 trefoil- or cinquefoil-headed lights with cusped Geometrical and flowing tracery, chamfered reveals and hoodmoulds with carved stops. A 19th-century moulded-arched north doorway on the right has a pair of 19th-century boarded doors with strap hinges.

The north porch has a double-chamfered plinth, diagonal buttresses, a moulded cornice, and a parapeted gable with trefoil-gabled kneelers resting on carved angels and a cross at the apex, with ridge cresting. A moulded arch with a fillet and one order of shafts with moulded bases and capitals frames a pair of boarded doors with strap hinges; 6-foiled side lights contain stained glass. A stone attached to the north wall of the nave is inscribed: "THIS/CHURCH/was rebuilt/ A.D.1744/Edwd. Hanmer/John Bate/Thos. Shaw/Church Wardens".

The east end of the chancel features a 19th-century window of 3 trefoil-headed lights with cusped Geometrical tracery, chamfered reveals, and hoodmould with carved heads as stops. A trefoiled opening in the apex of the gable above comprises 3 trefoils and has a hoodmould with carved stops.

The south aisle has a moulded plinth, moulded cill string, coved cornice, and parapeted gable ends with trefoil-gabled kneelers and crosses at the apices, with ridge cresting. The 19th-century windows comprise 2 trefoil-headed lights with cusped Geometrical and flowing tracery, chamfered reveals, and hoodmoulds with carved stops. A large 19th-century west window of 3 trefoil-headed lights with cusped Geometrical tracery, chamfered reveals, and hoodmould with carved heads as stops occupies the western end. An east window of 2 trefoil-headed lights features quatrefoil tracery and a hoodmould with carved stops.

The vestry in the south-east angle has a chamfered plinth, moulded eaves cornice, a parapeted gable with trefoil-gabled kneelers, and an integral red sandstone end stack with octagonal shaft and moulded cornice.

The east front features a segmental-arched window to the right with 2 trefoil-headed diamond-leaded lights and a wooden lintel over a recess to the right with a cinquefoil-headed window and steps down to a boarded basement door. The south front has a double-chamfered cinquefoil-headed window to the right with hoodmould and carved stops. An entrance set back to the left comprises a pair of boarded doors with strap hinges, a moulded segmental arch, moulded cornice and blocking course. Above this, set back further, is a dormer with 3 cinquefoil-headed lights with panelled tracery and ballflower-ornamented cornice.

Interior

The 19th-century four-bay nave roof and 19th-century two-bay chancel roof feature chamfered arch-braced trusses springing from stone corbels, with longitudinally braced central struts above and pairs of chamfered purlins. The chancel roof also has cusped arch bracing and a ballflower-ornamented frieze. The south aisle roof mirrors the nave arrangement.

A 17th-century continuously double-chamfered tower arch is surmounted by a 19th-century chamfered lancet window in the second stage of the tower above. A 19th-century four-bay arcade comprises circular piers with octagonal cushion-type capitals (half pier to the east and corbelled half pier to the west), supporting chamfered round arches. Tall 19th-century double-chamfered arches separate the chancel from the organ chamber and link the south aisle to the organ chamber, both with boarded doors to the vestry. The remaining rear arches are chamfered except for the east window, which has a moulded rear arch.

Fittings include a 17th-century iron-bound parish chest beneath the tower; a 17th-century probable former communion table by the north door with turned legs; and 19th-century panelled sanctuary, brass altar rails, lectern, choir stalls with poppyheads and traceried panels, a low chancel screen, and a pierced octagonal wooden pulpit on a stone base. 19th-century pews fill the nave and aisle, with 2 former free benches now beneath the tower. A baptistery beneath the tower contains a 19th-century octagonal stone font with carved panels and inscription. A tall wooden font cover, made from wood brought from the Holy Land and carved by the Reverend G. H. Egerton in 1879, bears an inscription, as does an inscription in encaustic tiles at the base of the font. A painted Royal Coat of Arms of 1775 hangs above the tower arch. Two hatchments are on the north wall of the nave, and a pair of 19th-century Gothic communion boards are under the tower. The remains of a ducking stool are in the vestry.

Stained glass of mid-and late 19th-century date includes an east window commemorating the Reverend Thomas Egerton (died 1847) and a north window in the chancel commemorating Mary, Lady Marjoribanks, wife of the Reverend George Henry Egerton.

Brasses commemorate Arthur Chambre of Petton (died 1564) and his wife and children, and Rector Ralph Kinaston (died 1629), with other late 17th- and 18th-century memorial brasses on the chancel floor and walls. Other monuments include a marble tablet to Richard Atcherley (died 1763) with flanking reeded strips, a top with acroteria and palms flanking a shield, and an urn above; a tablet to Richard Atcherley (died 1755) of wood painted to represent stone with a lugged architrave, swan-necked pediment with central finial, flanking painted scrolls, and key-ornamented base; and a tablet to Robert Atcherley of Marton (died 1755) of wood painted to represent stone with acanthus-decorated sides, a broken moulded cornice, a central cartouche with shield, and a swagged urn above.

Richard Gough (1635-1723), author of "Antiquityes and Memoyres of the Parish of Myddle" (1701), is probably buried in the chancel. Gough records that John Dod, the mason of the tower, was charged £5 for every yard in height the tower was built.