Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A medieval parish church with early 12th-century origins, substantially developed through the later medieval period. The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch.

The church is constructed in ironstone with slate roofs. The nave and south aisle are of coursed squared rubble, whilst the chancel, north aisle, and porch are of regular coursed stone. The chancel is distinguished by a moulded gable parapet with kneelers. The three-bay nave and two-bay chancel follow a typical medieval plan.

The chancel, largely rebuilt in the 14th century with 18th-century reconstruction of its east and south walls, contains an early Perpendicular moulded three-light east window. A chamfered south doorway with shouldered lintel features a 18th-century door. Two-light windows light the chancel sides.

The south aisle includes a mid-14th-century straight-headed Decorated eastern window, a renewed western window of paired lancets, and a 15th-century straight-headed south-west window. The north aisle has an early 14th-century eastern window with cusped Y-tracery and a Decorated western window, together with a wide moulded north doorway featuring a plank door. Both aisles contain two-light windows with 19th-century straight-headed Perpendicular replacements on the east.

The south porch, dating from the 14th or 15th century, is entered through a simple moulded arch and has a coped gable parapet with cross.

A late 12th or early 13th-century south doorway survives inside the church, displaying two moulded orders and a hood mould with return stops. An ancient studded door with strap hinges remains in place. The three-bay clerestory, added around 1500, contains restored windows of similar design to the south-west aisle windows.

The west tower rises in three splay-stepped stages with north-west diagonal and south-west angle buttresses, each having four offsets. A low wide moulded south door with hood-mould provides entry, and a small west lancet above features a buttress below set with re-used carved heads. The second stage contains a small louvred south lancet. Round-arch bell openings contain paired lancets with central shafts. A restored corbel table of carved heads supports a moulded coped parapet with remains of pinnacles.

Interior

The chancel has a shallow-pitched 19th-century panelled boarded roof. The chancel arch comprises two chamfered orders and half-octagonal shafts. The nave preserves late 12th or early 13th-century arcades with round piers, moulded capitals, and chamfered arches, beneath a 16th or 17th-century shallow-pitched queen strut roof. A low arched tower door provides access from the west.

The north aisle contains an ogee-arched tomb recess with hood-mould, fleur-de-lys finial, and bosses.

Fittings and Monuments

The chancel retains some early 17th-century panelling. Mid-17th-century altar rails feature turned balusters and pendants. A fine 15th or early 16th-century screen of seven elaborately traceried and moulded panels survives, its top possibly a 19th-century addition. This screen is said once to have been part of a musicians gallery at Warmington Manor House.

A re-cut 13th-century font stands on a moulded stem. Finely carved bench ends ornament the chancel, and some reused 15th-century panels feature in nave seating. Medieval encaustic tiles, said to originate from Stoneleigh Abbey, survive in situ. A 19th-century traceried pulpit and a Spencer coat of arms set in the west wall are present. Framed Royal arms dated 1826 and inscribed "David Selby, Churchwarden" are displayed.

Two wall monuments are recorded: John Spencer of 1610 in the chancel north, a large fine monument with pilasters, entablature, and achievement of arms, with an inscription noting his death in Blois; and An Barford of 1686 on the south wall.

The church represents a largely unaltered medieval structure of considerable architectural quality.