Church Of St Peter (C Of E) At Corner With Holwell Road

Church of St Peter (Church of England) at the corner with Holwell Road

This is a parish church rebuilt between 1877 and 1879 by the architect Ewan Christian (1814–95) for the Reverend Arthur Delme-Radcliffe, the rector. The last service in the old church was held on 30 December 1877, and the new church was consecrated on 8 May 1879 (as recorded on a tablet in the porch). Some features of the old church were incorporated when it was rebuilt. A south-east vestry and baptistery were added in the north-west corner of the nave in 1907.

The church is built of coursed brown and grey flint pebbles with limestone dressings, with the south-east vestry roughcast. It has steep red tile roofs. The building is an irregular small church designed in the style of the 14th century, comprising a chancel, nave, south aisle, and a south-west tower whose base forms the porch. There is a lean-to original north vestry (now the organ chamber) and a pitched-roofed later south-east vestry. Each element is clearly articulated. The chancel and the north-west angle of the nave have diagonal buttresses; the north side of the nave has two buttresses. The tower is three stages with a pyramidal roof. Other elements have gable parapets. Arched dripmoulds to openings inside and out terminate in neat bun-shaped circular stops.

The interior features scissor-braced rafter open timber roofs to the nave and chancel, and a two-bay arched braced roof to the south aisle. The chancel has encaustic tiles in its paving. The baptistery has mosaic paving. The chancel has a three-light east window with a circular motif in the head and stained glass, two single-light south windows, and one window to the north of the altar. The chancel arch has two chamfered orders springing from short corbelled shafts.

Features from the older church have been preserved. A 14th-century string course runs across the east wall with a hollow chamfer; its north end terminates in a long-snouted beast with closed wings from whose mouth issues a wavy stem ornamented with ball flowers, human heads, and leaves. A 15th-century corbel set over the south door is in the form of a wimpled female head.

The oak organ case on the north side has painted pipes decorated with crocketed finials alternating with angels blowing trumpets. The interior of the south vestry is decorated with red stencilling on a white ground. An arcaded marble reredos features vivid mosaic in cinquefoil panels. A shield with crossed keys of St Peter is positioned above the head of the east window. A marble ciborium stands to the north of the altar.

The tall nave has two bays of south arcade with two chamfered orders on a circular pier and corbelled imposts. A three-light pointed west window has trefoil lights and tracery in its head. A large three-light Perpendicular window lights the pulpit at the east end of the north wall. A single-light window is at the west end of the north wall. The pews are simple pine. The pulpit is an octagonal stone structure with mosaic inlay.

The font is a circular stone structure on four marble shafts in a low enclosure with carved wooden panelling and wrought iron gates.

Additional features from the older church include a 15th-century piscina in the north wall by the pulpit and a grave slab in the floor by the pulpit with a brass to Robert Wodehouse (died 1515) with a memorial plate, chalice and wafer, and two wild men or 'wodehouses'.

In the middle of the outside of the north wall of the nave is a 15th-century pointed doorway with continuous moulding with jamb stops. The inner order is hollow chamfered, and the outer order is wave moulded.

The small south aisle has a separate entrance from the porch and a single trefoil-light east window with a stained glass fragment of a bishop. The south wall has two square-headed windows with corbelled lintels inside: one has two trefoil lights and the other has three.

The porch in the base of the tower has a wide two-centred arched south entrance door. A memorial tablet is on the west wall, painted commandment boards are displayed, and a pointed lancet window is on the west. The tower has single lancet windows on each side of the middle stage, a circular clock face on its west face, a string course below single trefoil-headed louvred bell-openings on each face, and a weathervane on the apex of the roof.