Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a predominantly 12th-century church, with earlier Saxon foundations, and subsequent alterations including a 15th-century upper stage to the tower and a re-roofing. A significant restoration occurred, and a south vestry was added around 1855.

The church is constructed of stone rubble, with ashlar dressings. The north and south walls feature rubble laid in a herringbone bond. Roofing is in plain tiles with a club pattern, ornamental ridge tiles, and ashlar coped gables. The building comprises a nave, chancel, and a west tower, with a south porch and south vestry.

The chancel has a late 12th-century east window of three stepped lancet windows with a roundel above. The north wall features two 19th-century stepped buttresses and three lancet windows. On the south wall, a 19th-century stepped buttress and two 12th-century lancets flank the south vestry, which has twin lancet windows in its gable. A restored 19th-century lancet is located to the left of the vestry. A string course at sill level and a chamfered plinth run around the building.

The nave’s north side has a 19th-century stepped buttress and lancet window, followed by three 19th-century lancets and a round-headed 12th-century doorway with a tympanum. The south wall includes a 19th-century buttress, a 12th-century lancet, and a pair of 19th-century paired lancets on either side of a pointed arched south doorway. The doorway has shafts with restored water-leaf capitals and hollow chamfered abaci. The 12th-century tower has a lancet window on its west face, a slit window on its south face, and pointed arched bell-chamber openings on all sides. Stepped buttresses are present on the north and south sides, and the parapet is battlemented with corner pinnacles.

The south porch is timber-framed with an internal hammerbeam truss and an externally enriched truss with moulded tie beam and traceried screen. A single purlin roof covers the porch, and the nail-studded south door has strap hinges, refaced on the interior.

Inside, the walls are re-plastered. The chancel has a three-bay twin-purlin roof with arch-braced hammerbeam trusses; the truss on the nave side has ornate close-studded screen-work and enriched arched braces, alongside cusped windbraces. Slender shafts with water-leaf capitals flank the east window’s lancets, and a chamfered sill band is present. A 12th-century pointed archway, now the vestry door, is located on the south side. The nave roof is similarly constructed with arch-braced collar and tie beam trusses and purlins with cusped windbraces. A four-centred archway spans the tower’s lower stage, sitting on chamfered abaci. A Norman font sits on a 20th-century base.