Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a cruciform church built primarily in the 15th century, though it incorporates much earlier work. The earliest surviving features are early 13th-century details in the north transept and a 13th-century north doorway to the nave. A 14th-century south porch was added, and the main body of the church—the nave, south transept, and west tower—dates to the later 15th century. The south transept's south wall was rebuilt in the 16th century, and the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century, probably during restorations carried out in 1872-3 by W. Slater and R.H. Carpenter. The building is constructed of coursed rubble limestone with stone slate roofs.

The west tower rises in three stages and features a battlemented parapet, diagonal buttresses, and a south-west stair projection. It contains 15th-century openings including 2-light traceried windows to the bell chamber, a 3-light traceried west window, and a small west door with a double chamfered pointed head.

The nave has a coved cornice and an off-set buttress with a mass dial. On the south side is a large 15th-century 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and small carved head stops to the hood mould. The north has a 15th- to 16th-century 2-light window with a Tudor hood mould. The blocked north door has a 2-centred arch with hood mould, while the south door is 13th- to 14th-century with a moulded arch and carved head hood mould stops. The south porch has a 2-centred arch, stone benches, and a lean-to roof to the transept.

The south transept contains a 15th- to 16th-century 2-light east window with cusped lights and a 16th-century 3-light south window without cusping, both with Tudor hood moulds. The north transept retains its original east lancet and a small blocked west doorway with a semi-circular arch, though a 19th-century 2-light window was inserted in the north wall. The 2-bay chancel has 19th-century traceried windows in Decorated style: 2-light windows to the north and south, and a 3-light window to the east. A 19th-century gabled vestry and boiler house stand to the north of the chancel.

Inside, the nave is spanned by a double hollow-chamfered arch to the tower, with a blocked stair door featuring a 4-centred arch. At the east end of the nave on the north side is a shallow niche with a cusped 4-centred arch and traces of wall-painting. The nave roof was remodelled in the 19th century with quatrefoil wind-bracing but retains 17th- to 18th-century tie-beams. A stone corbels with carved heads marks the former roof-line. Between the nave and south transept is a large arch similar to the tower arch, with a narrower simpler arch to the east. The south transept has a trefoil-headed piscina, and both transepts contain squints to the chancel. The arch between the north transept and nave is early 13th-century and has been restored, featuring a moulded capital and base to a cylindrical half-pier at the west respond. The chancel arch matches the tower arch.

The chancel interior is 19th-century but incorporates original features: a small lancet window in the north wall, an altered piscina, 2 stone roundels in the east wall, and a pair of very small arched niches in the north wall. The north wall also contains an Easter Sepulchre assembled from various pieces of 14th-century masonry.

The font is 12th- to 13th-century with a square stone bowl with shafted corners on a base decorated with a narrow band of nailhead ornament. A charity panel dated 1831 is mounted in the tower. Other fittings and glass are 19th-century.

Monuments include brasses to Alice Malory (died 1579) and her husband in the south transept. Three notable marble wall tablets are in the nave: one to Samuel Adams, Rector (died 1750), with an obelisk and urn on a pedestal; one to Goddard Carter (died 1725) and his wife Rebecca, featuring an open pediment on Ionic columns with a charity panel below; and one to Elizabeth Adams (died 1728) and her seven children, with three carved cherub heads in a roundel. In the tower are a simple tablet to Alice Wayne (1675) and a marble tablet to Martha Rudger (1772).