Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a medieval parish church, extended and restored in the middle of the 19th century. It comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch, with a parish room added to the north side around 1860. The church is constructed of flint rubble with limestone dressings, and has plaintiled roofs, with a parapet gable at the east end.

The south nave doorway of the late 13th century incorporates reused carved stone elements from a late 12th-century arch, including billet-and chevron-carved voussoirs and a well-carved foliate capital within the jamb. Other 13th-century elements include a plain north doorway, cusped pointed windows in the chancel, a piscina and dropped cill sedilia with squinches, and a small arched aumbry in the north wall. Possible 13th-century arched doorways originate from the destroyed roodloft stairs. The nave roof is canted and ceiled, likely dating to the 15th century or earlier, although the chancel roof was rebuilt in the 19th century, retaining the previous 15th-century moulded cornice.

The 15th-century south porch has a moulded doorway with an image niche above, now containing a 19th-century figure of St Peter, and side windows of splayed gault brick. An inserted 15th-century grotesque corbel is located beside the porch. The 15th-century inner south door retains its original ironmongery. Other 15th-century alterations include two large north windows. A panel of freestone above the west doorway of the tower, featuring a carved frieze with an inscription to Thomas Seckford (died 1505), likely marks the beginning of the tower's construction. The doorway has shields in the spandrels, and a large west window is above. The upper stage of the tower incorporates fabric of red brick, suggesting a second phase of construction. Diagonal buttresses are ornamented with flushwork panels featuring crocketed heads, and there are lionhead gargoyles.

A fine terracotta window of around 1525 is set in the south nave wall. It is part of an important group commissioned by Sir Philip Booth of Shrubland Old Hall, Coddenham; his private chapel has two similar windows by the same Italian craftsman. The window has a panel bearing a pair of dolphins, a frieze with delicately moulded heraldry, and arabesques and other enrichment on the jambs and mullions. The east window is a 19th-century replacement in the 14th-century style. Within the nave is a wall tablet to Mrs. Elizabeth Vere (wife of John), who died in 1717. The sanctuary floor contains slabs dated 1673 and 1682, and the nave contains slabs with dates of 1713 and 1793. Three 17th/18th century painted coats of arms of lozenge form are displayed on the nave wall.