Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Little Comberton

A 12th-century parish church with significant alterations and enlargements in the 15th century, 17th century, and most substantially in 1886 by architect William White. The building is constructed of limestone and freestone, with red and grey sandstone dressings from White's restoration work. The roofs are graded stone tiles over the nave and chancel, and clay tiles over the vestry, chapel, and porch (with a combination of both on the porch).

The church comprises a nave, chancel (higher than the nave), west tower, north porch, south chapel, organ chamber, and north chapel. The 12th-century Norman work survives in the north wall of the nave, which displays three reinstated round-headed windows, one featuring rope moulding around the head. The south doorway is notable for an unusual re-cut tympanum showing a cross surrounded by eight whorls. The nave also contains a two-light Decorated north window and a square-headed window at the east end; the south windows date from 1886. The north porch, dated 1639, features a timber-framed entrance with a segmental arch beneath a closed king-post truss.

The Perpendicular three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet, and corner pinnacles. Its west face shows a three-light window with cusped lights and a straight-headed south doorway. The second stage contains a small square-headed east window and two clock faces below three-light belfry openings. The Perpendicular chancel is similarly buttressed with diagonal elements and features a three-light east window, a four-light square-headed south window, and a three-light square-headed north window incorporating the initial 'S' in the label. Above the nave, the chancel's west wall is timber-framed with small trefoil-headed windows, dating from White's 1886 restoration. The south chapel, which has a foundation stone dated 1886, is buttressed and possesses windows with ogee-headed lights. The adjoining organ chamber, under a separate roof, has a three-light south window with reticulated tracery. The north chapel contains a two-light Decorated east window.

Inside, the nave features a three-bay arched-brace roof above a 15th-century four-centred tower arch. The chancel arch comprises wooden arched braces on foliage corbels, supporting a collar beam, with the chancel itself covered by a trussed-rafter roof. A two-bay south arcade of alternating red and grey sandstone courses features a central pier of four clustered shafts with foliage capitals and hollow-chamfered arches. The organ chamber and north chapel possess similar polychrome arches, the latter having a round pier. The walls are rendered light-brown except for exposed stonework on the east wall and at the tower base. The embrasure of the north-east nave window is decorated with painted flowers. The church contains 19th-century tiles with raised wood floors below benches, and richer decorative tiling in the chancel and around the font; 15th-century tiles survive in the south-east corner of the sanctuary.

Principal fixtures include a 15th-century octagonal font on a round stem. Benches have edge moulding and scrollwork to the arm rests, while choir stalls display poppy heads. The polygonal pulpit features Gothic panels. The sanctuary has a dado with Gothic and linenfold panelling. The wooden reredos beneath Gothic canopies depicts scenes from the life of St Peter and the Ascension, carved by Richard Haughton in 1900. A monument to Thomas Shekell (died 1809), probably by Lewis of Cheltenham, shows a female mourner leaning on an urn. Medieval glass fragments are preserved in the nave south window. The east window illustrates the Transfiguration, Passion, and Resurrection, possibly by C. E. Clutterbuck (1848), while the chancel west windows feature angels playing musical instruments by William Pearce Ltd. Remaining windows date from 1886–88 and are by James Powell & Sons.

The nave contains a 12th-century core. The tower was added in the early 15th century, and later in that century the chancel was enlarged at the expense of the Savage family of Elmley Castle, whose initial appears above the north window. The porch was built in 1639. A partial rebuilding of the nave occurred in 1836, but the building's character is now dominated by William White's thorough restoration of 1886. White, the London architect (1825–1900), remodelled the nave, added the south aisle and north chapel, and made little alteration to the tower and the east end of the chancel. The distinctive banded masonry, both external and internal, provides the clearest evidence of his work.