Church of St. Peter ad Vincula

The Church of St. Peter ad Vincula is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with substantial additions and alterations spanning the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1595, 1755, 1822-3, and 1892-3. The church is constructed of regular coursed ironstone rubble with lead and Welsh slate roofs, and limestone dressings. It comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, a west tower, and a south porch.

The chancel, likely from the 12th century, features north and south windows with two lights and quatrefoils in their heads. The east window is a three-light Perpendicular style window. A pointed arched doorway on the south side has moulded jambs, a hood mould, and a plank door.

The nave, also mainly 12th century, has four two-light Perpendicular clerestory windows on each side.

The north aisle, from the 12th century, contains two- and three-light Decorated windows featuring reticulated tracery. The east window exhibits a transitional style moving from Decorated to Perpendicular. A pointed arched doorway on the right has a hood mould with label stops and a plank door.

The south aisle, likely dating from approximately 1290-1300, includes two lancet windows on the west end, alongside windows with two and three lights incorporating Y-tracery, Perpendicular tracery and intersecting tracery. A doorway on the south side is from approximately 1300. The south porch, constructed in the 15th century, has a wide four-centred arch with quatrefoils in the spandrels, a canopied niche above, and a crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

The Early 14th-century west tower has three stages. The pointed arched west doorway is topped with a hood mould featuring label stops and a plank door. The tower has two-light windows with Y-tracery and a crenellated parapet.

Inside, the chancel features a Decorated piscina with an ogee head. The nave has name-bay arcades on the north and south sides, with a wider pointed, small arched bay to the east dating back to approximately 1300. The north arcade includes two plain round Romanesque arches, circular piers with scalloped capitals, and a pointed arch to the west. The south arcade has pointed arches; the two western arches have two orders of hollow chamfers supporting a round pier with a moulded capital, while the two eastern rectangular piers are topped with capitals decorated with nail head motifs. A 12th-century round font has a band of zig-zag decoration. The church contains box pews and fragments of 14th-century glass in the chancel windows. A 17th-century achievement of arms is displayed in a south aisle window, relating to the Hall family.

The church is notable for a series of medieval wall paintings, considered the finest in the county. Fragments from around 1330, representing scenes like St. Margaret and the Dragon, St James with a kneeling donor, the Martyrdom of St. Thomas-a-Becket, and the murder of Thomas of Lancaster exist over the chancel arch and in the north aisle (attributed to Professor Tristram, in a Courtly style, oil on plaster), and Late 15th-century paintings depicting the Passion series appear in the nave arcades, executed in a primitive, archaic style. Monuments include a wall plaque to Gamvel Hall, interred in 1639, and a plaque to John Lane, who died in 1671.