Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating back to the medieval period, with significant restoration work carried out in 1860. It comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, and a south porch. The church is constructed primarily of flint rubble with stone dressings, with the nave heightened in red brick. The chancel is rendered, and remnants of render are visible on the nave and the upper half of the tower. The roofs are slate-covered.

The early 14th-century tower is square and features two stages, topped with a crenellated parapet decorated with chequer-pattern flushwork. It has 3-stage diagonal buttresses on its west side, a moulded west doorway, and lancet windows on the ground floor (north and south) and at ringing chamber level (north, south and west). The belfry openings are two-light, with more elaborate tracery on the south side. The nave walls are mainly early 14th-century, with contemporary moulded north and south doorways. In the 15th century, the walls were raised, and three-light windows were inserted, three on each side. A 15th-century porch, originally of high quality, now shows considerable decay to much of its decorative work; the entrance arch is enriched with fleurons, shields, and crowns on both the outer and inner faces, and has an enriched hoodmould with mask stops, the spandrels formerly carved. There are three empty canopied niches above and to each side of the entrance, and remains of complete flushwork panelling on the front, culminating in an embattled red brick parapet.

The early 14th-century chancel retains its original fenestration, with regularly-spaced lancet windows, featuring pointed trefoil heads – three on the south side and four on the north. It has an unmoulded Priest’s doorway and a very large east window of five lights with cusped intersecting tracery, believed to have originated from Bury St Edmunds abbey.

Inside, the nave has an 8-bay arch-braced roof with false hammerbeams, short king-posts above the collars, and moulded braces, purlins, and ridge piece. An enriched cornice runs along the east end, continuing onto the hammerbeams. A rood beam, enriched with moulding and brattishing, is located at the east end. The chancel roof is ceiled over, with a 19th-century wallplate. The chancel windows have internal hoodmoulds, linked together to form a continuous string course. A canopied piscina is recessed within the chancel wall, along with a surviving credence shelf. Another piscina is found in the nave. An image niche, canopied and dating to the 15th century, is set into the east splay of the south-east nave window. A simpler niche is located immediately west of the north nave doorway. A rood stair is built into the north-east nave corner, with doorways above and below.

The 15th-century octagonal font has a bowl carved with the Seven Sacraments and the crucifixion, accompanied by seated figures and the Signs of the Evangelists, all of which are defaced. A restored pulpit is dated 1604. Thirteen medieval benches, featuring poppyhead ends, are located at the west end of the nave; the remaining seating is from the later 19th century. The tower screen is constructed with 14th-century tracery, possibly from a former rood screen. A large 14th-century iron-bound chest can be found in the nave. Within the base of the tower is a solid-tread stair leading to the ringing chamber, considered original and a rare survival.