Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter, Hanwell

A parish church almost entirely rebuilt in the 14th century, with earlier elements surviving. The building comprises a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower, arranged in a five-window range.

The walls are built in ironstone ashlar with a stone slate roof laid to diminishing courses.

The north and south doorways date from the 13th century. Tracery in a window in the south aisle also dates from the 13th century and is probably re-sited. The chancel has 2-light Decorated windows and a blocked window, with a 5-light east window featuring intersecting tracery. A small 4-centred arched doorway on the north is now blocked. A notable lively frieze of monsters and humans, or combinations of both, dates from around 1340 and is attributed to the north Oxfordshire group of masons (comparable work appears at Horley, Adderbury, and Bloxham). Windows have pointed arched hood moulds.

The nave has three 2-light Perpendicular clerestory windows on both north and south sides, added in the late 14th or early 15th century. The north aisle contains three 4-light 16th-century windows, with 13th-century east and west windows having flowing or reticulated tracery. The south aisle has a 3-light Decorated west window, a 3-light geometrical east window, and windows with intersecting tracery flanking the porch.

The south porch is gabled with a diagonal buttress and a 13th-century doorway. It retains a plank and batten door with an inner door, stone ledge seats, and two blocked windows. The west tower comprises two stages with a crenellated parapet and a higher stair tower with slit windows; it features 2-light Perpendicular windows.

Late 18th-century repairs are documented. A new roof was constructed in the late 14th or early 15th century. A vault was made under the chancel in 1776, and the floor was raised to the level of the Decorated piscina and sedilia.

The interior contains a 3-bay butt-purlin tie-beam roof in the chancel. Three-bay north and south nave arcades feature capitals with crenellated cresting on the north side and figures of minstrels playing musical instruments on the south (similar carvings appear at Adderbury, Bloxham, and Drayton). The north aisle roof has been renewed; the south aisle roof has been restored while retaining original tie-beams.

The chancel has all windows with slender jamb shafts and contains a stone carved reredos and a Decorated piscina. The north aisle also has a Decorated piscina and two small square recesses. The south aisle contains a piscina and credence table. In the south-east corner is a stone angle fireplace with a chimney vent in the form of a pinnacle with gabled crocketed openings.

A tub-shaped font of around 1200 features intersecting arcading and is topped with a final; it is accompanied by a wooden Jacobean cover with four scrolls supporting a finial.

The chancel wall contains an alabaster tomb effigy to William Cope and his wife. Memorials include stones to Jonathan Cope (died 1765), Mary (died 1753), and Jonathan (died 1763), a cartouche commemorating Charles Cope (1781), a hatchment in the south aisle and wall memorial to Harris family members, and a marble wall memorial to Reverend Thomas Gill (died 1771) in the north aisle. The south aisle has a tomb effigy brass to Fitzherbert Potter, DD (1749), and an ironstone chest tomb commemorating George Ashwell (died 1693), decorated with balusters at the corners and cornucopia. A recess in the chancel contains funeral helms of the Cope family. The Creed and the Lord's Prayer are painted on the wall in the south aisle. A clock dates from 1671. Altar rails date from 1686.

The door to the bell tower is of plank and nail construction with strap hinges.