Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

This is a parish church of Norman origin that underwent several significant phases of development and modification.

The church was founded around 1100, as evidenced by the surviving chancel arch. The north nave arcade dates to the 12th century, while the chancel was substantially rebuilt around 1200. The south arcade and west tower were added in the late 13th century. Between 1880 and 1890, the north aisle and west tower underwent major reconstruction.

The building is constructed of fieldstone, rubblestone, and dressed limestone, with parapetted roofs. It comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel.

The west tower rises in three stages and is embattled with crocketted corner pinnacles and a short leaded and moulded spire. The 19th-century west window is a replacement. An early 14th-century niche was built into the west wall, with a corbel of a woman's head in a wimple reset nearby. The bell stage contains two openings divided by a mullion in two-centred arches with a label.

The nave features a 15th-century clerestory of three windows, each containing two cinquefoil lights in four-centred arches. The south aisle has a pentice roof with end parapets and two restored three-light windows. A doorway in two-centred arch with continuously moulded orders provides entry.

The chancel is 12th-century in origin but was remodelled in the 14th and 15th centuries and restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its south wall contains one 12th-century lancet and two 14th or 15th-century windows, one with a low side. A 15th-century embattled parapet crowns the wall, with 20th-century buttressing. The restored east window is 15th-century with three lights. The north wall contains another 12th-century lancet and two cinquefoil lights.

The north aisle is 12th-century in origin, with restoration undertaken in the 14th and 15th centuries. It contains two windows of three cinquefoil lights each, set in four-centred arches.

The interior reveals a 13th-century tower arch of two-centred form with three chamfered orders; the inner order rests on half-octagonal columns. The north arcade is 12th-century, comprising three bays of round arches with two chamfered orders. The columns are round with scalloped capitals, chamfered abaci with rebated corners, and moulded bases. The western arch was rebuilt in the 13th century. Above the north arcade remain traces of two blocked early 12th-century windows. The west end of the north aisle contains a lancet window with a trefoil head and wide splay rear arch.

The south arcade is 13th-century with three bays of two-centred arches with two unequal chamfered orders, resting on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The roof above is 15th-century, comprising three bays with braced tie beams with pierced spandrels, carried on jackposts supported by unmoulded stone corbels. Carved bosses mark the intersections of intermediate principal rafters and purlins. A 13th-century piscina is set in the south wall of the south aisle.

The chancel arch and responds survive from the original aisleless church of around 1100. They form a depressed round arch of two unmoulded orders on piers with square responds and chamfered impost. The lancets in the chancel's north and south walls have deep splays.

Monuments include a stone tablet on the north wall of the chancel commemorating Peter Phesaunt (died 1649) and his wife Mary (Bruges), dated to the early 17th century. It is flanked by Ionic pilasters supporting an entablature with flaming urns, an achievement of arms featuring a large pheasant crest, and an apron decorated with an hour glass and skull. The south wall of the south aisle contains a 1730 stone cartouche flanked by Ionic engaged columns with entablature and a segmental pediment bearing emblems of mortality.

The 12th-century font is square with a square base; the lower edge of the bowl is chamfered and the upper edge of the plinth is splayed. A 17th-century oak font cover survives. An oak communion table with turned legs and rail, dated to the 17th century, stands in the south aisle and has been restored. The 15th-century chancel screen, repaired, comprises three bays including a centre bay with ogee foiled heads.

Historical records indicate that Earl Ailwyn granted the manor of Upwood and Raveley to the Abbot of Ramsey around 970. By 1086, as recorded in Domesday Book, the Abbot held both a church and priest there, along with considerable woodland.