Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a grade II listed building constructed of coursed and squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, a chamfered ashlar plinth, and Welsh slate roofs with ashlar coped gables. Though oriented north-east to south-west, ritual compass points are used throughout.

The church comprises a clerestoried nave, lean-to aisles, a south porch, a west tower, and a chancel with a lower ridge than the nave, together with a south organ chamber and a north vestry. Its architectural style is Decorated, dating from the early 14th century.

The exterior features a five-bay clerestoried nave rising above five-bay lean-to aisles. The aisles have offset diagonal buttresses at their east and west ends, offset buttresses dividing the bays, and two- and three-light traceried windows with chamfered surrounds and head-stopped hoodmoulds. At the west end of the south aisle stands a gabled south porch with offset angled buttresses and a double-chamfered pointed entrance. The porch floor is encaustic tiled, and the entrance is a pointed, boarded and ledged double-door of stained softwood within a chamfered surround. Above the aisles are curved triangular clerestory windows with trefoil and elongated quatrefoil cusping. The east end features offset diagonal buttresses and a large pointed window of four cusped lights with trefoils and a quatrefoil at the top, set within a chamfered surround. The organ chamber and vestry have two-light traceried windows on their east elevations. The organ chamber's south elevation contains a lancet window, whilst the vestry's north elevation holds a trefoil-headed doorway with a 19th-century boarded and ledged door of stained softwood.

The west tower rises four stages with offset diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet. Its lower stage contains a pointed west doorway with a late 20th-century boarded and ledged oak door set within a double-chamfered surround with roll moulded arch and hoodmould, the continuous moulding extending to the returns. The second stage has a large three-light traceried window with a quatrefoil at the top, within a chamfered surround and head-stopped hoodmould. The third stage contains lancet windows, whilst the fourth stage has pointed two-light belfry windows. The tower is topped with a pyramidal roof surmounted by a cockerel weathervane. At the tower's south-east corner stands a polygonal stair turret with a trefoil-headed doorway and small rectangular windows, rising to the tower's third stage. The west elevations of both aisles contain two-light traceried windows with chamfered surrounds and head-stopped hoodmoulds.

Internally, the church has a five-bay nave arcade of pointed, double-chamfered arches carried on octagonal piers and responds with block capitals. The arches are embellished with hoodmoulds and headstops matching the external window detailing. The chancel arch is similar but is carried on carved angel corbels. The nave roof comprises scissor-braced trusses with wall posts supported on moulded stone corbels at clerestory level. The chancel has a trussed-rafter roof, whilst the aisles have arched braces to the bay principals with struts down to the arcade spandrels, again with wall posts and moulded stone corbels. The chancel flooring is 19th-century decorative encaustic tiles, whilst the nave and aisles have late 20th-century plain terrazzo. The walls are plastered.

The fittings include a 19th-century octagonal font decorated with trefoil-cusping, featuring a tapered octagonal stem, a moulded base, and a wooden font cover with scrolled metalwork decoration; the font was raised in height in the 20th century with the insertion of a stone plinth. The 19th-century choir stalls and pews are of stained softwood, the pews having roll moulding to the cappings and fielded panels to the ends. A stone pulpit, partly built into the northern respond of the chancel arch, is of irregular polygonal form with moulded profile matching the nave capitals. The chancel contains a three-manual pipe organ and case with decorative painted metal pipes by Nicholson and Lord of Walsall. At the east end of the south aisle is an ex-situ organ screen purchased by Reverend W.F. Bradley from Tewkesbury Abbey and installed in 1890 as a memorial to his wife, Susan Godfrey. At the east end of the north aisle stands an ex-situ oak reredos, and beneath the tower gallery at the west end is an ex-situ oak screen with Perpendicular blind arcading; these fittings are of probable 20th-century date but their origins are unknown. The church contains a notable collection of 20th-century stained glass by A.E. Lemmon, including the 'Te Deum' east window of 1930, a memorial window to Charles Lucas (died 1940) depicting 'The Call of the Four Fishermen', and a memorial window to Samuel Pearson (died 1936) depicting the 'Empty Tomb'.