Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A parish church of the 14th and 15th centuries, restored in 1901 and 1909 by Burgess and Brown. The building is constructed of flint with brick and stone dressings, flint flushwork, and slate and leaded roofs. It comprises a west tower, nave, north transept, south porch, chancel, north chapel and vestry.

The three-stage embattled tower dates to the 14th century. It has diagonal buttresses and a stair turret in the south-east angle. The plinth features flushwork panels that continue on the buttresses and stair turret, with stages marked by continuous bands. The west doorway has two orders of ogee and sunk chamfer, the inner order bearing a band of shields and other emblems. A moulded hood sits beneath a square label with restored encircled quatrefoils in the spandrels; a worn angel stop appears to the right, none to the left. A pair of doors dates from 1901. Above is a band of flushwork panels. The west window is three-lights with restored panel tracery and a decorative ogee hood rising to a crocketted crest, set within a Gault brick surround with angels bearing shields as stops. A single foiled ringing chamber opening with a square hood appears on both west and south faces. A two-light cusped bell opening with foiled vesica occurs on all faces. The embattling is of Gault brick. The stair turret contains two encircled quatrefoil openings, one with the quatrefoil set diagonally.

The nave dates to the 15th century and has three straight stepped buttresses to north and south, the easternmost on the south side covering the rood stairs. The south elevation displays three three-light panel traceried windows with supermullions beneath stilted arches. The first two bays have flint flushwork panels to the plinth; the remainder have brick replacement.

The south porch is constructed of flint and brick. The plinth is largely of flint flushwork panels with some brick replacement. Diagonal buttresses support the structure. A crowstepped brick gable parapet features stumpy brick finials at the apex and angles, with a plaintile roof. The right-hand return is of brick up to the cill and above the window. The left-hand return is flint flushwork. Left and right openings contain two-light cusped windows with almost triangular heads, with a moulded brick hood to the left and a stone hood to the right. The outer arch features engaged shafts with worn bases and worn moulded capitals bearing quatrefoils and flowers on the abaci. The outer and inner orders have sunk chamfer with a band of shields, crowns and Tudor flowers. The restored hood carries a square label with shields in the spandrels. Above is a sundial inscribed "GR1910-35 The Greater Light to Rule The Day". The porch roof is ceiled, and a stoup stands to the right. The south doorway has two continuous orders, the inner with a partly restored floral motif and a moulded hood. A late 15th-century door of moulded planks and muntins retains original door furniture.

The chancel has been much restored. It lacks a plinth but has diagonal buttresses to the east and straight buttresses between windows. Two three-light panel traceried windows flank a priest's door, with jambs and head of two moulded orders. The east wall, much restored, has a four-light window with panel tracery, the main lights with triangular cusped heads.

The north elevation of the nave displays two restored windows similar to those on the south. A north doorway has two continuous orders as on the south, with an inner band of flowers and a moulded hood. A door of circa 1500 has blind traceried upper panels.

The transept has stepped diagonal buttresses. Its north window matches that of the nave, with grotesque stops. A blocked opening appears in the west wall. The chancel's single window matches that on the south. The chapel contains a two-light window with curvilinear tracery and a scroll moulded hood with worn foliate stops, and a panel traceried window on the east wall.

The vestry, dating from circa 1909, has two two-light windows beneath square labels.

The interior features a tower arch with restored two-chamfered orders to the arch and flat responds with chamfered arrises. The nave roof is a seven-bay arch-braced structure restored in 1901. The chancel arch has been restored, its lower part replaced by circa 1900 with corbels in 13th-century style, whilst the upper part is original. Deep cut wave moulding flanks each side of a polygonal shaft with moulded capital; the wave moulding forms a continuous order, with the inner chamfered order rising from the capitals. The chancel roof is arch-braced, all circa 1900. A piscina with a simple arched head bears chamfer and ogee mouldings. A long narrow squint has been restored.

The transept chapel dates from circa 1500. Its arch is a continuous hollow chamfer bearing a band of shields. The two-bay shallow pitched roof has moulded principals and bosses in the form of Tudor roses or leaves. A hollow, rose moulded and embattled cornice runs throughout. An octagonal font displays floral and foliate emblems alternating with angels on its panels. Angels with interlocking wings appear on the underside. The stem, possibly replaced, contains recessed cusped panels between shafts, and stands upon an octagonal base. A small traceried canopy, mostly of softwood, surmounts the font. The pews are 19th or 20th-century poppyhead benches. A west gallery from 1901 contains five panels, the middle three of which are said to date from the 18th century and depict a lady with harp, the arms of the Foster family of Copdock Hall, and Edward VI on horseback. Chancel shields were painted in 1959 and bear the arms of George III.