Church Of St Peter And Attached Walls

This is an Anglican church located in Brighton, dating back to the 13th century. The nave was extensively restored in 1872 by James Woodman, who rebuilt the north porch and added the south vestry. The chancel was restored in 1878 by Ewan Christian, and further restoration of the nave occurred in 1906-7 by PM Johnston after a fire. The church is constructed of flint with stone dressings, and has a tile roof.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, west tower, north porch, and south vestry. The east window features three stepped lancet windows. A shoulder-arched entrance is located on the south side of the chancel, likely dating to the 19th century; the nave has two lancet windows on the south side and three on the north. Small, shoulder-arched windows are positioned near the apex of the nave gable over the chancel. The south vestry has an external stack and a decorative cowled chimney. The west tower is square and projects from the center of the west end, with small, louvred lancets, a corbel table, and a pyramidal roof. The north porch has a timber-framed construction with flint and brick panels and a steep, hipped roof of Horsham stone slab.

Inside, a chest tomb, purportedly belonging to Edward Elrington who died in 1515, serves as the altar. The chancel showcases late Victorian decoration, largely financed and commemorating the Stanford family of Preston Manor, including an arcaded wooden reredos from shortly after 1906, stencil decoration on the walls, a pointed-arched roof with decorated ribs, choir stalls carved with foliage and figurative ornament, a tessellated floor, and stained-glass windows honoring the Stanford family. An Early English chancel arch features chamfered detailing. The remains of a piscina are visible in the south wall of the nave. Fragments of early 14th-century wall paintings survive on either side of the chancel arch and between the two easternmost windows on the north wall, depicting the Nativity, the murder of St Thomas a Becket, and St Michael weighing souls. A painting of the Deposition, dating to the late 19th century and housed within a gilded frame suggestive of Pre-Raphaelite style, hangs above the entrance to the south vestry and was formerly part of the chancel reredos; it may be the work of NHJ Westlake.

A flint wall with brick coping extends approximately 25 meters to the south and 30 meters to the north of the church's west end, featuring five buttresses along the northern stretch, which have been substantially rebuilt.