Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A Grade I listed church in Welford-on-Avon, dating from around 1330-40 for its nave and lowest stage of tower, with a chancel of the same period. The tower's middle stage is early 13th century and its top stage dates to the 15th century. The aisles were altered in the late 14th century. The church underwent restoration in 1866-67 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and has machine tile roofs. It comprises a 2-bay chancel with a lean-to north vestry, a 2-bay nave with lean-to aisles, a west tower and a south porch.

The chancel has offset buttresses and coped gables with diagonal buttresses. Its east window is a renewed 3-light opening. The north side has a 2-light window and a vestry with a re-set 2-light 14th-century east window and north entrance. The south side features two 2-light windows flanking a wall tablet to Richard Rawlings (died 1727), inscribed with worn lettering and topped by a segmental head with a cherub. All windows display Decorated tracery and hoods.

The nave's east gable has a sanctus bellcote with coping swept down to the original line of the south aisle gable. The north aisle contains a blocked 12th-century round-headed entrance and a 3-light straight-headed window with traceried lights and label moulds, plus a small 12th-century round-headed west light.

The south aisle has three restored offset buttresses, a cornice and coped parapet with two pinnacles. Its gabled porch has a single-chamfered arch. The original 12th-century inner doorway was altered in the 15th century with zig-zag moulding and an inset single-chamfered arch with battened doors. A 3-light window east of the porch matches the north aisle window but lacks tracery and has head stops. A buttress to the west displays moulded offsets and an inset stone inscribed with a shield and graffito dated I R 1673. The aisle also has a 2-light 15th-century east window and a small 12th-century round-headed west light.

The tower's tall lower stage has no buttresses and a small 12th-century round-headed west light. The middle stage features a sill course to two lancets with roll-moulded jambs and continuous roll moulding, angle pinnacles, and Y-tracery louvred bell-openings. A clock is set into the south face.

The chancel interior has a scissor-truss roof with two king-strut trusses. A sedile recess sits south of the window, and an ogee-headed piscina is present. The vestry door has been re-set.

The nave has 2-bay arcades with single-stepped round arches on round piers with scallop capitals. The arcade to the north has later water-holding bases. The roof dates to the 19th century and features king post trusses. The tower arch has impost bands and the west windows have wide splays.

Interior fittings include 19th-century chancel stalls with tracery panels and a circa 1920 war-memorial chancel screen with vine trail cornice and brattishing. The nave contains an early 17th-century timber pulpit with a flared base, fielded panels, fluted top panels, an incised frieze and cornice. A 13th-century font bowl has capitals and bases to four shafts, now fitted with 17th-century balusters.

Monuments in the nave include a slab indented for a brass of a 15th-century priest and slabs to Anne and William Iakeman (died 1723 and 1735).

Late 14th or early 15th-century stained glass was re-set in the south chancel windows in 1936, and some medieval glass remains in the north chancel window.