Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a church of 12th, 13th and early 16th-century date, constructed of rubble flint with ashlar dressings and English bond brick, beneath a plain tile roof. The building comprises a nave, chancel, south-western porch and west tower.

The tower is built of English bond brick with blue brick diapering. Its west face features a projecting plinth with ashlar bands to the upper plinth, originally set with flushwork though most of the flint has now disappeared and the cavities are blocked with brick. An ashlar door surround at the centre has hollow-chamfered and birdsbeak mouldings, with a hood-mould above and weathered floral motifs to the spandrels. Above this is a 3-light window with cinquefoil heads to the lights and a hood-mould with figurehead label-stops. A single lancet window sits above this in a rectangular chamfered surround, and a 2-light belfry opening has a chamfered surround and hood-mould. A brick band runs below belfry level and an ashlar string course sits below the battlemented parapet, which features panels of flushwork arcading. The south face has a similar belfry opening, partially masked by an openwork wrought iron clock face, and a gargoyle at the centre of the belfry string course. The lower body has blank walling with a canted staircase turret at the right. The north face is similar except without the turret. The east face abuts the church at its lower body and has diapering in diamond patterns to its upper body, with a similar belfry opening to those on the other fronts.

The nave's north face has lower walling of flint rubble and upper walling of brick in English bond. A Perpendicular doorway with a moulded surround sits to the right, with a single Romanesque lancet with an arched head to its left. A diagonal buttress rises at the far right corner. The south face features a projecting gabled porch near the centre with polygonal buttresses at either side and a projecting plinth with panels of flushwork to the upper body, some displaying geometric designs and having lost their flint infill. A central ashlar door surround has colonettes at either side, hollow chamfer with square bosses and weathered floral motifs to the spandrels. A trefoil-headed niche sits above the doorway and a crow-stepped gable with saddleback coping crowns the porch. The flanks have arcades of trefoil-headed openings to the lower body. To the left of the porch is a 2-light Y-tracery window of circa 1300 with panels of flushwork evenly spaced across the rubble walling below. To the right of the porch is a portion of what appears to be a blocked Romanesque lancet window, partially overlayed by a Perpendicular window of 3 lights with cinquefoil heads and a hood-mould.

The chancel is slightly narrower with a higher ridge but steeper roof pitch so that its eaves level is lower. Its south face has a Perpendicular window of 2 ogee-headed trefoil lights at the left, with a Priest's door having a chamfered ashlar surround slightly to its right. A projecting buttress sits further right and a 2-light trefoil-headed window sits at the far right, a 19th-century replacement of the window at the left. The north face has herringbone rubble flintwork at the right with a lancet at the left and a buttress further left. The east face has 2 diagonal buttresses dying back into the corners and a central 3-light window with interlacing tracery of circa 1300.

The porch interior has 19th-century outer doors and a roof with trusses featuring long wall posts. Pendant beams connect to the collar and wall posts by angle braces, with wave and cavetto mouldings to the door surround. The nave roof spans 6 and a half bays with wall posts rising from corbels in the form of gremlins, connected by arch braces to hammerbeams which support hammer posts connected to the collar beams by further arched braces. Additional arched braces run along the wall surface connecting the wall posts. Carved purlins decorate the roof. The chancel roof is a whitewashed wagon roof. The font is octagonal with stem and bowl, both now whitewashed, featuring defaced figures against the stem. Angels with interlacing wings appear below the bowl, with Signs of the Evangelists and angels holding scrolls to the bowl panels. Dividing the nave and chancel is the northern half of the lower body of a rood screen with 6 panels divided into pairs. Wall memorials in the chancel include a black marble tablet to John and Theopilia Leland, circa 1690, with an ashlar surround featuring curtains at either side, scroll brackets, an apron with cartouche and coat of arms, and a broken pediment with urn to the top. A white marble tablet to William Leland, circa 1730, has brackets at either side and a pediment above with a central coat of arms to the tympanum and an apron with a separate tablet to his son Naunton Leland.