Church Of St Peter

The church of St Peter is a small rural church with a core dating back to the 12th century, a tower built in 1835, and later Victorian restoration work. It is constructed of rendered materials with a tiled roof. The plan consists of a nave with an internal west tower, a chancel, a southwest porch, and a northeast vestry with a catslide roof and a flat-roofed rectangular block to the northwest.

The exterior features an unbuttressed chancel with a trefoil-headed priest's door on the south side, exhibiting nailhead decoration to the hoodmould, thought to be an 1830s copy of a medieval doorway. A probable 1835 Y-tracery window is set within a 12th-century opening on the south side of the chancel. There is a three-light, plate-traceried east window from the 19th century, and a round-headed 12th-century north window to the chancel with a deep internal splay. The north side of the nave has steeply-pointed two-light traceried windows and one 12th-century round-headed window also with a deep internal splay. A slender, embattled west tower from 1835 features a two-light Y-traceried window and arched belfry openings with hoodmoulds. The porch has a plain round-headed outer doorway and a chamfered round-headed inner doorway with a single order of zig-zag moulding, largely renewed. The inner face of the inner doorway has jambs that turn from a square section to a chamfered section, and a splayed head.

The interior has unplastered walls and a double-chamfered chancel arch. A chancel screen features square-headed openings with tracery and traceried openings to the wainscot, elements which may be late medieval, but with tracery that seems to be from the 19th or early 20th century. A round-headed tower arch is visible on the west wall, with a 12th-century round-headed window above it, now internal. The chancel has curious Norman-style decoration to the inner arch of the south window, which Pevsner considers 12th century, but may be 19th century. The chancel has a 19th-century two-bay roof with an arch braced truss. The nave roof has two arch-braced trusses and two tiers of purlins; dating is uncertain, however, the principal timbers may be late medieval. The rafters and boarding behind have been renewed, and the ridgeboard is secondary. A circa 1945 polygonal timber pulpit features fielded panels and an inscription commemorating World War II. The font has a plain polygonal bowl on a stem. Nave benches have shouldered ends, and there is a brass dating from 1640. Panels of Flemish glass are in the west window.

This is a heavily restored church of 12th-century origins, retaining some 12th-century openings, and with a Gothic tower of 1835.