Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church dating to the 13th century with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1895 by Reginald Blomfield. The church is constructed of flint and rubble with dressed stone quoins and surrounds, with red brick used in the buttresses and the top storey of the tower. It features a plain tile roof.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, a priest’s room to the northwest, and a south porch. The two-stage tower has angle buttresses and a cornice to the parapet, with a round arched, double-chamfered west doorway containing a 19th-century plank and stud door, single lights above, and a round arched brick belfry opening. The south wall of the nave features four buttresses, and three windows: a 15th-century Perpendicular (Perp.) window with three lights and a four-centred arched hood mould, a 14th-century window with two lights, a quatrefoil in the head, and ogee cusping, and another 15th-century Perp. window with three lights and a four-centred arched hood mould. A 19th-century porch of flint, ashlar with plinth, and dressings is located on the south side, featuring a barge-boarded gable.

Inside, a partially repaired 16th-century plank and muntin door leads to the church, and an external ogee-headed water stoup is also present. The chancel’s south wall incorporates a 13th-century plain chamfered doorway with a 19th-century plank and stud door, a single chamfered 13th-century lancet window, and a brick and flint buttress. The east window is a 19th-century design in the 14th-century style, with two brick and flint buttresses. The north side of the chancel features a single buttress, a restored lancet window, and a 15th-century Perp. window with double hollow chamfered surrounds and King's head label stops to a four-centred arched hood mould. The north wall of the nave has three offset buttresses, including a 14th-century window with two lights and missing glass, an early 14th-century 'Y'-traceried window with dagger cusping and removed glass, and a 15th-century Perp. window with two lights and crown-like tracery and removed glass.

A 15th-century priest's room projects from the nave to the west, featuring a single-light 15th-century Perp. window and a brick chimney. The interior includes a ribbed pointed barrel vault beneath the tower, a plain chamfered doorway, and remnants of a rood stair to the east. The nave has a barrel-trussed roof with three tall crown posts on large ties. The chancel is narrower and has a lower ceiling, with a plastered gable extending to the nave. The 19th-century east window is set into a deeper and higher original reveal, and there is a three-bay crown post roof. Fittings include a piscina with a shouldered flat head, carved head wall brackets, a 17th-century pulpit with a Romanesque front on a renewed base, and a screen from Eastwell church, adapted to fit. Fragmentary wall paintings are present on the north nave wall and south chancel wall. Medieval glass was removed during the restoration. Also present are a medieval stone coffin lid before the altar, a 17th-century vault cover in the nave, a stone slab with four large metal rings associated with the Chapman family, and signs of a lost brass.