Church of St Peter Church of England is a Grade I listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 22 February 1967. A Circa 1615 Church.

Church of St Peter Church of England

WRENN ID
waiting-lead-crow
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
East Hertfordshire
Constituency
North East Hertfordshire MP: Chris Hinchliff (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
22 February 1967
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Peter Church of England, High Street, Buntingford
OS grid reference
TL 363 293
Coordinates
51.94573, -0.01822
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Peter is a Church of England church, originally built around 1615 as a chapel of ease for the vicar, Dr Alexander Strange. The date is recorded on an inscription stone on the east gable ("Domus Orationis 1615"). It was restored in 1899-1900 by W.A. Pite, who renewed the windows, restored a west gallery, and added a north porch and a vestry/heating chamber in the southwest angle.

The church is constructed of red brick in English bond and has steep tiled roofs. Its unusual design is a Jacobean town preaching house in the shape of a Greek cross, oriented so the chancel and semi-circular apse are at the south end, and the entrance is under a clock and bell at the north end. It incorporates a "Gothic Survival" style, featuring tall moulded brick windows with blunt pointed heads, set within similar moulded arched recesses. The west gable has two small pointed lights, and the gables have moulded copings, finialled corbelled kneelers, and squared apex finials. There's an offset plinth, step-corbelled eaves, and broad pilaster buttresses to the apse, alternating with pointed windows (heightened and refaced in 1900). A bellcote sits on the north gable, and a porch was added later.

Inside, the church has a flattened barrel-vaulted roof running east-west, with smaller vaulted roofs abutting it to the north and south. The timber ceiling is renewed, but the original heavy cambered, hollow-chamfered tie-beams remain, along with hollow-chamfered braces rising from wallposts on corbels, two to each arm of the church. There's a pointed arch of two chamfered orders leading to the apse. Billet moulded cresting runs along the wallplate all around the church. A heavy ovolo-moulded beam is positioned at the front of the gallery across the west arm, supported by four wooden Ionic columns with tall pedestals; one pedestal has strapwork carving and another houses a bench end. A pentagonal font with a moulded base, panelled stem, and bowl features arabesque ornament and bosses. A framed engraved brass plate depicts the interior of the chapel in 1622 during a service, and it’s inscribed to Alexander Strange who “fecit hanc Capellam.” A large iron clock movement is housed in a wooden frame in the east arm.

Local climate

Church of St Peter Church of England sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 80% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 61% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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  1. Milestone Against East Wall of St Peter's Church Grade II 8 m
  2. War Memorial 9 Meters to North of St Peter's Church Grade II 16 m
  3. K6 Telephone Kiosk Near to the Crown Inn Grade II 27 m
  4. The Almhouses Grade II* 29 m
  5. The Hoops Grade II 34 m
  6. Crown Public House Grade II 37 m
  7. 2 and 2a, High Street Grade II 41 m
  8. Finlay House Grade II 44 m
  9. 4, High Street Grade II 50 m
  10. 6, High Street Grade II 69 m