Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This church has origins in the 13th century but was substantially rebuilt in the 14th century. The clerestory and north aisle were added later, and the tower was rebuilt with major restoration work undertaken in 1842 and 1850 by J. Potter. The chancel was restored in 1897.

The building is constructed of squared coursed blue lias, with the chancel north wall, vestry, tower and nave west wall built of squared coursed limestone. The chancel east wall is of lias and limestone rubble. The south aisle has the lower part built of regular coursed sandstone. Dressings throughout are of sandstone, with some limestone on the north side. The old tile roofs have coped gable parapets with gablet kneelers and 19th-century cross finials.

The plan comprises an aisled nave, chancel, north transept chapel and vestry, with a south-west tower. The architecture displays varied Gothic and Gothic Revival styles. The chancel is 2 bays and the nave 4 bays. The exterior shows splayed plinths and diagonal buttresses of two offsets. Most windows are fitted with hood moulds, some with head stops. The 3-light east window has intersecting tracery. On the south side, the priest's door is a 19th-century insertion with eroded 13th-century moulded jambs and wood lintel. The chancel and aisles have 3-light straight-headed Decorated windows. The south aisle has a double plinth and a 3-light moulded mullioned east window. The clerestory has 3 bays with paired trefoiled round-arched lights under chamfered straight heads. The transept has a north gable with a 2-light 19th-century east window of geometrical tracery and a 3-light north window of reticulated tracery. The vestry has an east window with Y-tracery. A 19th-century porch sits in the angle of the transept and aisle, with a doorway of 2 chamfered orders and hood mould. A mid-19th-century Gothic Revival iron gate is present. The aisle has a north-west window. The nave has double-leaf west doors in a surround of 2 chamfered orders with hood mould. The north aisle and nave west windows have 2 lights with 19th-century geometrical tracery. A sill course steps up in two stages from the aisle window.

The tower rises in 3 stages with a moulded string course and quoins, and a south-east buttress. The first stage has a small west window with Y-tracery. The second stage carries a stone clockface to the west and a trefoiled lancet to the east and south. The third stage becomes octagonal with 2-light bell openings of plate tracery. The spire is fitted with lucarnes and a weathercock.

The interior is plastered. The chancel contains a 17th-century moulded and cusped king post roof. There is a ribbed north door in a chamfered surround. The chancel arch and the nave arch to the transept are plastered, with inner chamfered and outer moulded orders but no imposts. The arcades have 2 chamfered orders. The 3-bay south arcade has an eastern arch that dies abruptly into the wall, with octagonal shafts. The 2-bay north arcade is 19th-century work with a half-octagonal east respond and west impost. The arcade has a moulded crown post roof with wall posts and corbels, one corbel bearing an incised animal head. The south aisle contains a trefoiled ogee piscina and has a lean-to roof. The north transept, known as the Shuckburgh chapel, has a 19th-century arch-braced and scissor-braced 2-bay roof with an arched west door in a segmental-pointed recess.

The fittings include a 13th- or early 14th-century octagonal font with trefoiled gables, a 2-decker Jacobean pulpit dated 1607, and some linenfold panelling in the chancel from Shenton Hall, Leicestershire. There is an 18th-century fielded panel with cornice from Combe Abbey and 17th-century turned baluster altar rails. The church contains 19th-century box pews.

The monuments include a wall monument to Reverend William Huddesford (died 1770) on the chancel south wall with an open pediment, and a wall monument to Thomas Worcester (died 1698) in the south aisle with a segmental pediment, crest cartouche, volutes and slate panel. The chapel contains a stone effigy of a lady dating to around 1300, set upright against the south wall. There are 18th-century floor slabs and 19th-century Gothic wall monuments to the Shuckburgh family. Hatchments commemorate Sophia Shuckburgh (died 1848), John Shuckburgh (died 1837), Colonel Richard Shuckburgh (died 1773) and Reverend Charles Shuckburgh (died 1875). A stained-glass window in the south aisle dates to 1900 and is by Kempe.