Priory Church of St Peter

Priory Church of St Peter

This parish church occupies the nave of what was formerly a larger monastic church. The building dates from the 12th and 13th centuries with additions continuing into the 20th century. It underwent comprehensive restoration in the 19th century by George Somers Clarke and later by Bodley and Garner.

The church is constructed in Totternhoe stone with additions in Caen stone, clunch, flint and red brick. It follows a Basilican plan.

Exterior

The west front is three bays wide across two storeys, with a tower to its north side. A large central Romanesque portal with four archivolts and decorative carving forms the focal point; it has been infilled with a 15th-century door. To the north is an Early English portal with four archivolts. Between the two portals is a blind Early English arch with Romanesque blind arcading beneath it. Above these are seven bays of blind arcading with plinths for statues, followed by a gallery with a six-bay arcade of clustered columns and curvilinear tracery. Five smaller bays of blind arcading with pointed arches sit above this, all topped by a crenellated parapet.

The 15th-century tower at the north-west corner rises four storeys, articulated by string courses. Its north face carries a two-stage buttress up to the third storey, and each face has paired windows in the fourth storey. The upper stages are faced in chequered clunch and flint. A clock occupies the north face at the third storey. The tower and stair turret both have crenellated parapets.

The north aisle, restored in 1876 by George Somers Clarke, has six bays. Five of these are articulated by large three-light cinquefoiled windows in Perpendicular style with three-stage buttresses between them. The aisle has a crenellated parapet. The northernmost bay contains a Norman portal with three archivolts and doors with elaborate strapwork hinges; this portal was uncovered and extensively restored by Clarke.

The east wall is largely of 20th-century red brick but contains two blind arches housing the remains of original shallow-arched portals. The upper storey has two three-light Perpendicular-style windows.

The south aisle, rebuilt by George Somers Clarke in 1852, has a flat roof and seven bays articulated by small Romanesque-style windows, with a similar window in the return at the eastern end. A three-stage buttress and hexagonal turret with a small crenellated upper stage occupy the south-west corner. A small three-stage square tower in red brick is linked to this buttress.

Interior

The nave is wide, with seven bays articulated by the original 12th-century arcading. North and south aisles, also of seven bays each, flank it (though the tower occupies the north-west bay and the vestry the north-east bay).

Each nave bay features wide piers with a cross-like profile and columns between each angle. Rounded arches spring from cushion capitals decorated with chevron work. At triforium level, each bay has a shorter round arch with three archivolts containing a three-light window with quatrefoils forming a clerestory. The two eastern bays of the clerestory are original 12th-century work; the others date from Clarke's 1852 rebuild.

The nave ceiling is open to the shallow-pitched roof structure and consists of wooden panelling with square bosses and tie beams with tracery by Clarke.

Each bay of the south aisle is formed of Romanesque-style quadripartite vaulting. The two easternmost bays serve as the Lady Chapel.

The north aisle has a timber ceiling. The former external east window remains unglazed, dividing the rest of the north aisle from the vestry. 21st-century kitchen fittings occupy the bay next to the tower.

A carved wooden rood screen reported to date from 1392 partitions the east end; it was restored to its original position in 1890 by Bodley and Garner. The screen has five cusped, ogee-headed arches with Perpendicular openings in the spandrels. 19th-century choir stalls occupy the east end. A red marble pulpit, installed in 1880, stands within. The east end wall contains two pointed-arched blocked doorways surviving from the building's monastic phase and three Gothic-canopied niches with plinths for statues, inserted during the wall's rebuilding in 1962. The organ, by Norman and Beard, dates from 1913.

A late-20th-century glass internal porch occupies the west end. A gallery is formed from seven pointed arches with slender clustered shafts, providing access to the north-west tower and south-west turret.

The font, positioned by the north door, is a 19th-century rebuild of a Norman font with fluting to the base and decorative motifs including Celtic knots to the upper section.

The building contains numerous monuments of high quality, including several from the 18th century. A war memorial plaque near the south-west corner commemorates those who fell in the South African War of 1899–1902.

Most of the stained-glass windows are by the 20th-century artist John Hayward (1929–2007).