Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Parish church with a base dating to the early 14th century in the west tower, with the remainder of the building—nave, aisles, and chancel—constructed in the late 14th century. The church underwent restoration in 1898. It is built in ashlar with lead roofs.

The four-stage tower is externally expressed as three stages. It features angle buttresses with a polygonal stair turret to the south-west. The west door is arched with undercut mouldings below the string course. A two-light arched west window dates to the early 14th century. Single trefoiled statuary niches are set within the buttresses to right and left. Lancets light the ringing chamber. A string course runs below two-light transomed belfry windows. The parapet is crenellated with gargoyles.

The aisles have stepped side buttresses angled at corners. Three-light aisle windows feature embattled transoms and rising supermullions, with four-light windows at the east and west ends. Crenellated parapets run along the aisles and clerestory, all with panelling and corbel tables studded at intervals with animal head gargoyles. The closely set clerestory windows are two-light openings under stilted arches, each separated by stepped pilasters of such weight as to appear as flat buttresses.

An elaborate two-storey south porch dates to the early 15th century. It has stepped side buttresses and angle buttresses to the south face, with gabled heads to the buttresses. A four-centred arched opening sits below a square hood, the spandrels containing punched roundels with coats of arms. Above is a frieze with a nine-bay arcade of cusped arches also bearing heraldic devices. A three-light window lights the upper room and is flanked by canopied statuary niches to right and left. The crenellated parapet features panelled arcading that obscures the gabled roof. Two two-light side windows open to each storey. The porch vault spans two bays with moulded tierceron ribs; the bosses are carved with religious scenes and animal and figurative motifs. The inner south door is arched and moulded, with original double timber doors bearing tiers of carved arcading. A simple north gabled porch with crenellated parapet and square corner pinnacles with crockets also exists. The east and west faces have diagonal buttressing and one window each. Polygonal rood stair turrets with roll moulded edges and spirelets are positioned at the nave east wall, with a bell cote at the gable head.

The chancel comprises five bays with stepped buttresses angled to the east. Three-light arched Perpendicular windows step up towards the east end, beneath a crenellated parapet with panelled arcading. Square pinnacles sit over the east buttresses. A seven-light east window occupies the chancel's east wall. Beneath the east bay of the chancel is a vaulted passageway in the shape of a depressed four-centred arch. It is a two-bay tierceron vault with bosses carved with foliage and some figurative carving.

Interior

The arcade comprises seven bays of quatrefoil piers on moulded polygonal bases with polygonal moulded capitals, featuring fillets to the cardinal points. The arches have roll mouldings. The nave roof consists of moulded tie beams on arched braces dropping on wall posts to head corbels, with moulded curved Queen struts rising to moulded principals. One tier of butt purlins and a ridge piece complete the roof. The north aisle roof features alternating large and small arched braces to principals with two tiers of butt purlins. The south aisle roof dates to 1812. A stilted tower arch with double hollow chamfers is supported on internal corbels carved with grotesque figures.

A 17th-century timber screen extends across the nave and aisles at the west end with three doorways topped by pediments. Arched leaf trail panelling runs below an openwork balustrade of turned shafts beneath a frieze of continuous circles with floral patterns. An early 17th-century tower gallery features turned balusters. The chancel arch is roll-moulded on circular responds. Ogee-headed doorways access the rood stairs.

The dado of a 15th-century rood screen survives in six bays to right and left of the central opening, each bay painted with figures of saints and apostles. A south chancel arch pier contains a three-light arched window from the rood stairs looking down into the chancel. The chancel dado features a cinquefoil roll-moulded arcade, each bay containing a miniature rib vault. A string course runs beneath the chancel windows. Between each window a nodding ogee canopy with pierced arcading sits above a statuary niche. Shallow niches to right and left of the east window also have canopies. Stepped sedilia and piscina in the south wall feature mutilated rib-vaulted canopies. The chancel roof, dating to 1812, is plain with two tiers of butt purlins intersecting with principals on arched braces.

Several chancel stalls survive with poppyhead ends, animal arm rests, and misericords. One particularly fine misericord depicts a pelican pecking its own breast. Beneath a canopied niche on the south chancel wall stands a monument to Robert Butler dated 1632. It is of marble with an inscription panel predella below an effigy of Robert Butler kneeling before an altar. A pair of Composite columns support a carved entablature.

The nave contains a fine set of 18th-century box pews and 17th-century benches. The south aisle has three tiers of benches largely comprising fragments of different periods, with 15th-century pierced bench backs inserted into 17th-century poppyhead bench ends or vice versa, showing evidence of 19th-century restoration.

A fine hexagonal pulpit dated 1620 stands on a slender timber stem. Its panelled sides feature an arcaded bottom rail. Fielded diamond panels sit beneath upper arched panels enriched with foliage carving, with a moulded cornice above. Curving stairs bend round a nave pier against which the pulpit is erected, and above is a tester with frieze and drop pendants.

An octagonal font dated 1532 has a stem and bowl carved with ogee-headed panels. An early 17th-century timber rim buffet font cover in three stages features a console lower rail, a centre stage of paired carved pilasters framing arcaded panels, and a tapering pinnacle with strapwork cornice below pierced arabesque work.

A 15th-century parclose screen between the south aisle and south nave chapel comprises five bays with ogee tracery heads of two subsidiary lights each, and four tracery arches in each dado bay. A brass chandelier of 1701 hangs in the nave, featuring a central shaft of ball and baluster turnings terminating in a globe and ball pendant, with two tiers of opposing curved circular-section arms. A poor box on a turned baluster stands with inscriptions on three sides reading "Remember the Poore 1639".