Church Of St Peter Ad Vincula

Church of St Peter ad Vincula

This is a church of mixed dates, comprising a 12th-century chancel, 13th-century nave and tower, 14th-century south aisle and chapel with further alterations, and a 17th-century porch. The building was restored in 1872.

The nave, tower and porch are built of regular coursed ironstone, while the chancel, aisle and chapel are of squared coursed ironstone rubble. The chancel is roofed in tiles, the nave in slates, and the aisle in lead. Both nave and chancel have coped gable parapets.

The church displays Decorated style architecture. The plan comprises a three-bay nave, two-bay chancel, south aisle, south chapel, north porch and west tower.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses with two offsets. It contains a renewed four-light window with curvilinear tracery, a small chamfered priest's doorway with a 19th-century plank door on the north side, a two-light eastern window with curvilinear tracery, and a small low western two-light window with reticulated tracery. The south side has a three-light window of cusped intersecting tracery. All windows have hood moulds with return stops.

The porch has a chamfered and moulded Tudor-arched doorway with hood mould, and stone benches inside. The decorated north doorway features two major and two minor orders of roll moulding and deep hollow chamfers, with a hood mould having block stops. It contains 19th-century double-leaf doors. Three partly-restored two-light north windows have ogee arches and hood moulds with return stops and finials, with reticulated tracery except for the westernmost window west of the porch, which is cusped.

The south aisle and chapel form a single structure. They have diagonal and two south buttresses with two offsets each. A splayed plinth, missing in the west bay and buttress, steps down from the tower halfway across the west end. The east window has two trefoiled lights and an uncusped mouchette wheel with a gable at the east end only. The south side contains a three-light eastern window and two-light western window with reticulated tracery, and a central Perpendicular window with panel tracery. A two-light west window has trefoiled round-arched lights within an ogee arch. Hood moulds have return stops; the central window has block and carved stops.

The tower is built of very large ironstone blocks with prominent pointing. It comprises three stages with a taller square north-west stair turret. It has a splayed plinth and string courses, with diagonal buttresses featuring four offsets to the second stage. The west doorway has two chamfered orders with splayed jambs and 19th-century double-leaf ribbed doors. The second stage contains a small two-light west window with renewed reticulated tracery and two-light Perpendicular bell openings. Remains of gargoyles are visible, and there is a moulded cornice and parapet.

The interior has a plastered chancel arch to the chapel. The chancel arch, three-bay nave arcade and chapel west arch are similar, each comprising two moulded and chamfered continuous orders without capitals or imposts. The chancel has a 20th-century roof. The nave has a flat plaster ceiling. The aisle has a six-bay Perpendicular roof with moulded tie beams. The chapel, now serving as an organ chamber, has a much-renewed ogee-headed piscina.

Fittings include a font with a plain octagonal bowl, possibly recut, on a renewed stem; a pulpit, pews, altar rails and encaustic tile sanctuary floor dating from circa 1872; and an elaborate stone reredos of Early English style from 1875 with polished granite shafts. Stained glass in the chancel north-west dates to circa 1865. Monuments on the west wall comprise two panels of reset 16th, 17th and early 18th-century inscription brasses.