Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating back to the medieval period, with a north aisle added in the 19th century and substantial restoration work in 1868 and 1920. The building consists of a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a west tower. It is constructed of random flint with stone dressings, with the north aisle faced in knapped flint and white brick. The nave and aisles have lead roofs, while the chancel is slated to the north and plaintiled to the south.

The tower is a late 14th or early 15th century four-stage square tower with diagonal buttresses on the west face. It includes a restored two-light west window, two-light Y tracery bell chamber openings, and a crenellated parapet featuring panelled flushwork, a carved string course with gargoyles at the corners, and a 17th-century lead-clad needle spire. The south aisle of the nave, dating around 1500, has four bays, a blocked doorway in the west bay, mostly restored windows, and a flat parapet. The chancel south aisle, known as the Cockfield Chapel, dates from the early to mid-16th century and has two bays. It contains a large renewed four-light window, a Priest's doorway with a square hood mould, and one blocked three-light window in the east bay. The chancel’s renewed east window is in the Decorated style. The north aisle, in Perpendicular style, features seven bays and a crenellated parapet, with two-light windows and a main entrance in the west bay. Internal features include four-bay arcades to the nave aisles and two-bay arcades to the chancel aisles, supported by octagonal piers. The nave and chancel have scissor-braced roofs, which are plastered over. Original roofs remain in the south aisle, with the roof of the south chancel aisle adorned with painted shields representing the Hopton, Brooke and Blois families of Cockfield Hall. The church contains a good, early 15th century octagonal font with carved panels, an engaged shaft and panelling to the stem. It also has a cinquefoil-headed piscina in the nave south aisle, an early 17th-century carved pulpit and a late 18th-century organ case in the chancel north aisle. Ten hatchments, mostly from the 18th century, are also present. Numerous brass effigies, which have been moved from their original locations, include those of John Norwich (died 1428) and his wife, Thomasine Tendring (died 1485) and her seven children, Johanna Brooke (died 1618), Anthony Cook (died 1613) and Christian Foxe (died 1618). There are many 17th–19th century wall monuments. The church is Grade II* listed for its surviving medieval fabric.