Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church located in Tempsford, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, with repairs made in 1621 and 1874. The building is constructed from coursed ironstone, cobbles, and clunch, featuring large sections with clunch and ironstone banding, and has ashlar dressings and repairs to the tower. The roofs are slate. The church includes a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a west tower.

The chancel, dating from the 15th century, has a 5-light east window from the 20th century, two 3-light windows to the south, with the west window likely reworked in the 17th century. There is a 4-centred arched south doorway, and the north elevation features a similar 3-light window in the west bay, also reworked in the 17th century. The east bay has a blocked archway that originally opened onto a vestry, and there is a 14th-century pointed chancel arch.

The nave, from the 14th century, has 4-bay pointed-arched arcades on both sides, with two west arches of the south arcade rebuilt in the 17th century. The clerestory was also reworked in the 17th century, featuring four windows on each side, with the eastern ones having three lights and the others two lights, all with pointed heads. There are entrances to the rood loft stairs remaining at the northeast angle.

The north aisle, reworked in the 14th century, has a 2-light east window with a pointed arch from the 14th century and a 19th-century lozenge-shaped west window. The north windows are 15th-century, restored in the 19th century, with three lights under 4-centred heads. The south aisle, also from the 14th century, is similar to the north aisle but lacks a west window. Both the nave and aisles have plain parapets.

The north and south porches were rebuilt in 1621, featuring steep pitched gables with stone coping and pointed archways. The west tower, dating from the 14th century and reworked in the 17th century, has a pointed tower arch and consists of three stages with angle buttresses and an embattled parapet. The ground stage has a 19th-century 2-light pointed west window, the middle stage has pointed arched single lights to the west and south, and the bell-stage features 2-light pointed arched windows on all sides.

Inside, the church is rather plain, with roofs from the 19th and 20th centuries, although the nave retains a 17th-century egg-and-tongue wall-plate. There is 19th-century pewing, a 14th-century octagonal font, and the base of a 15th-century rood screen under the chancel arch. The 15th-century octagonal pulpit has traceried panels. The southeast wall of the north aisle has very indistinct remains of a wall painting of St Catherine, and there are bracket niches from the 14th century in the east walls of the aisles. The tower contains 18th and 19th-century marble wall monuments to the Payne family.