Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, with significant 19th-century alterations and additions. It is constructed of flint with limestone dressings, largely rendered over, with a lead roof to the nave and plain tiles over the porch and chancel. The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, and a south porch.

The slender, slightly tapering west tower is unbuttressed, featuring a polygonal stair turret on its south side. A 2-light window of 15th-century origin occupies the west face, having a segmental-arched head. A single-light window is positioned above the ringing chamber, with a cinquefoil head. The bell openings are now without mullions or tracery, fitted with wooden louvres. The tower has a double-stepped parapet with flushwork panels, repaired in brick.

The 15th-century south porch has a blind traceried window panel to the west, filled with flint. It is characterized by diagonal, staged gable buttresses with flushwork panels and stone kneelers to the gable parapet. A sundial sits at the gable apex. The doorway features engaged polygonal shafts and a square dripmould, with fleuron decoration to the arch, dripmould, and capitals. Three-light windows on the south side of the nave, two from the 15th century with castellated transoms, and the easternmost with reticulated tracery are present, with a red brick stepped east gable featuring stone kneelers and short diagonal gable buttresses.

The chancel is largely of 19th-century origin, incorporating two-light windows with a priest's door between the openings. A pedimented wall monument, lacking visible inscriptions, is located at the south-east corner. Diagonal, staged buttresses with chequer-pattern flushwork panels define the east gable, alongside a coped gable parapet with a cross-finial and a slated lean-to organ chamber central on the north side of the chancel. Three lancets are set into the north wall of the nave, with a 19th-century lean-to vestry also attached to the north wall.

The interior features a south porch retaining its original roof with arch-braced principals, ashlar posts on a moulded cornice, and a medieval south door. The nave roof is of the 15th century, largely repaired, and showcasing arch bracing with bosses at the intersections. A re-used 18th-century screen is found across the tower arch. The chancel arch is a 19th-century addition with stiff leaf capitals and decorative outer orders. An early 18th-century balustrade has been re-set across the chancel arch to form a low screen, composed of turned balusters and square panelled newels. The chancel roof is 19th-century, arch-braced with a waggon-boarded ceiling, painted in 1862-3 with foliage and figures in roundels under the direction of E.J. Tarver, architect. 19th-century glass is present in the chancel windows, by Hardman (east) and Clayton and Bell (south). The piscina features a petalled bowl, and the sedilia, stepped-cill, are present in the south wall of the chancel, restored with ogee heads and crocket-finials. The octagonal font has eight engaged shafts around the stem, defaced figure corbels below the bowl, and traceried panels containing shields and roses. Notable wall monuments include those to John Richmond (d.1694), Clere Garney (d.1730), Rev. Peter Foster (d.1812), and the Clere Garney family (d.1767). Significant 16th and 17th century monuments to the Bedingfield family are also within the chancel.