Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A church of mixed date spanning from the early 13th century with 12th-century origins. The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, west tower, south porch, and north-west vestry. It was substantially restored in 1876 at a cost of £2,770, with further restorations in 1911 and 1930.

The church was built in phases. The chancel dates from the early 13th century but was altered in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The north aisle and arcade are late 13th-century work, widened in the 14th century. The south aisle and arcade were added in the early 15th century. The tower was built in the mid to late 14th century but received 15th-century upper parts. The clerestory is late 15th-century. A south porch of brick with stone plinth was added in the early 17th century.

The fabric uses various sandstones. The chancel has an ashlar east wall with the upper part of squared coursed stone; its side walls are coursed rubble. The nave east and west walls are ashlar, with the clerestory of coursed rubble—red to the north, grey to the south. The north aisle and tower are ashlar. The south aisle's east and south walls are ashlar with coursed rubble above, and its west wall is coursed rubble. Old plain-tile roofs have coped gabled parapets.

The chancel is 3 bays with architectural detail reflecting its Decorated period. It has a splay plinth and moulded sill course. Diagonal buttresses date from the 15th century; 13th-century buttresses to the north have five offsets, whilst the southern buttress has one offset with stop-chamfered corners. The east window, of circa 1876, has 5 cinqfoiled lights without tracery and a hood mould. A 16th-century south door below the central window has a chamfered 4-centred arch. Three-light north and south windows are similar to the east window.

The nave clerestory features 4-centred arched windows of 2 trefoiled lights. The 3-bay nave is pierced on either side by arcades—the north arcade of Decorated style, the south of Perpendicular. The north arcade has 2 orders with octagonal pillars and moulded capitals. The south arcade has 2 chamfered orders with transversely elongated octagonal pillars.

The south aisle has a moulded and chamfered plinth and an east diagonal buttress with moulded offset. It is lit by 3-light Perpendicular windows throughout. The porch to the south has a stone doorway with moulded jambs, imposts and round arch, with 19th-century double-leaf doors. Its gable carries a sundial, and there is a moulded south doorway inside. The east wall bears strapwork memorial to John Blisse dated 1633.

The north aisle has a splay plinth, with diagonal and two north buttresses of 2 offsets. Its windows are of 5 lights. The east window has fine reticulated tracery and hood mould; the gable has a cross finial. The mid-14th-century eastern window has flowing tracery; the western and taller west windows have cusped intersecting tracery.

The tower consists of 3 stages with moulded plinth and string courses. The first stage is blank to the west. A former processional passage running through from north to south has late 14th-century archways, with 18th-century woodwork framing a window to the north, and 19th- and 20th-century stonework with a 20th-century door below a glazed arch to the south. The second stage has a window of 2 trefoiled lights. The bell chamber has cinqfoiled 2-light openings with transom and hood mould. A moulded parapet and pyramid plain-tile roof, probably 18th-century, crown the tower.

The interior is plastered. The chancel features 15th-century niches with moulded jambs and restored cinqfoiled gabled canopy with crocketed pinnacles to left and right. A 15th-century south piscina has moulded jambs, trefoiled ogee head and hood mould with head stops. A locker in the north wall has 19th-century doors. The chancel arch is 19th-century moulded work with a triplet of very long, thin shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and hood mould with head stops.

The chancel roof is a 4-bay 17th-century double queen strut design with cambered tie beams, moulded wall plates and slightly curved wind braces. The nave roof has been reconstructed as a 5-bay kingpost structure, possibly incorporating some reused old timbers, with moulded tie beams and wall plates. A large west lancet lights the space.

The north aisle roof is reconstructed 15th-century work of 3.5 bays with stop-moulded tie beams, arched braces with moulded pendants to collar beams, and curved wind braces forming arches. Intermediate trusses lack tie beams. The south aisle roof is a 6-bay arched brace design, possibly 17th-century, with chamfered tie and collar beams.

The font consists of part of a late 15th-century octagonal bowl with thick ribs and shields, discovered in the vicarage garden in 1910. Late 19th-century fittings include a pulpit and stalls. An organ, probably 19th-century, stands on a 20th-century base at the west end of the nave.

The stained glass includes remarkable 14th and 15th-century material in the east window from various sources, including parts of a Tree of Jesse probably from Merevale, and a 14th-century St Margaret, along with 19th-century patterning. The chancel north and south windows contain further fragments.

Monuments include Edward Hinton (1689) in the chancel, with a bust in front of an oval recess with winged heads. Two inscribed wood boards with swan-neck pediments, said to commemorate the Martyrs of Mancetter—Robert Glover and Joyce Lewis—date to 1833. In the north aisle are monuments to Abraham (1743) and Mary Bracebridge (1745), with a shaped panel and cartouche on bracket and a panel below with winged head; and to Theodossia Bracebridge (1742), an obelisk panel with cartouche and shaped inscription panel below with consoles and apron. The south aisle holds a monument to Elizabeth Simmonds (1744) with a drapery panel.