Church of St Peter and St Lawrence

Church of St Peter and St Lawrence

Church dating primarily to the 13th and 14th centuries, with surviving 12th-century elements and a 15th-century tower. The building was substantially restored in 1845 and again in 1896-97. It is constructed of squared sandstone with an ashlar tower and tile roof, and comprises a west tower, north and south aisles and transepts, and a lower chancel.

The tower features diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet. The bell openings consist of three trefoiled lights beneath pointed traceried heads, with pierced 19th-century stone infill to the lights. The west window contains four cinquefoiled lights with 19th-century mullions and tracery, whilst the west doorway is also 19th-century work with a Tudor-arched head.

The aisles are 14th-century. The north aisle has three windows of two trefoiled ogee lights under a pointed head with quatrefoil, plus a similar west window and a doorway between the second and third windows with a straight-sided pointed head. The south aisle features three windows of the same type, a single trefoiled light to the west, and a blocked wave-moulded doorway with pointed arch between the first and second windows.

The transepts are 12th-century in origin. The north transept contains a narrow chamfered round-headed 12th-century window in both west and east walls. The north window has five cinquefoiled ogee lights with Perpendicular tracery, whilst the second window in the east wall is 13th-century, comprising three trefoiled lights with a large triangular foiled opening above. The south transept's west wall has a re-tooled window of two lights with Y-tracery, the east wall contains a similar window and a narrow 12th-century round-headed window, and the south window consists of four pointed lights under a straight-sided pointed arch with tracery.

The chancel is 13th-century. The east end of its north wall contains two lancets and two string courses, whilst at the west end is a 14th-century window of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil, adjacent to a doorway with pointed arch. The south wall has three 14th-century windows similar to that on the north side, with a blocked doorway of canted head and raised chamfered surround between the second and third windows. The nave roof is surmounted at its centre by a ridge tile with clay finial.

Interior

The reveals of the pointed tower arch are decorated with blank tracery. A 19th-century stone screen separates the tower from the nave. The five-bay nave arcades feature pointed arches chamfered in two orders, supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and wave-moulded in two orders. The nave roof is a collar-rafter roof with soulaces and ashlar pieces. The aisle roofs have moulded principals and purlins. The eastern arches are separated from the others and open into the transepts, which have transverse arches opening into the aisles. The chancel arch is chamfered in two orders with the inner order springing from foliated corbels. The chancel roof comprises king-post trusses with iron straps. The 13th-century east window has banded shafts with foliated caps.

The font is 14th-century, featuring an octagonal bowl with quatrefoil panels standing on a panelled and moulded stem and base. Wall memorials in the north transept include one to Daniel Tyas (died 1673), inscribed in Latin with allegorical figures, and one to Mary Russell (1758-1786) by Thomas Scheemakers, which depicts a semi-reclining female figure and a sarcophagus carved with a mother and child and musical instruments.