Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a church of considerable historical and architectural importance, built shortly before 1123 for Geoffrey de Clinton. It was substantially altered in the early 14th century for Lady Mantaate, who added the upper stage and broach spire to the tower. The building was restored in 1876 and 1877 by Bodley and Garner.

The church is constructed of rendered limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, and has stone-coped gabled stone slate roofs. It comprises a chancel and nave with a central tower.

The chancel dates to the early 14th century and features a curvilinear two-light east window, an early 12th-century round-arched window with a roll-moulded inner arch and billeted sill to the north, and a 15th-century three-light cinquefoil-headed window to the south. A late 19th-century vestry with a Gothic doorway and ogee-headed lights is attached to the south side. The chancel is notable for its fine corbel table of human and animal heads.

The three-stage central tower contains an early 11th-century stair-turret and round-headed doorway to the north, and a 15th-century three-light window with panel tracery to the south. The second stage has an early 14th-century pointed-arched cinquefoiled light to the south and a similar trefoil-headed light to the north. The upper stage features early 14th-century two-light Y-tracery belfry lights, with reset early 12th-century head corbels beneath a quatrefoil-panelled parapet. The ribbed broach spire is decorated with gabled lucarnes.

The nave's north side contains, from east to west, an early 14th-century curvilinear two-light window and two early 12th-century round-headed windows with billeted sills. A gabled early 14th-century north porch has a hood mould over a chamfered doorway with imposts. A mutilated early 12th-century south doorway, with a plain tympanum, frames a studded 17th-century door. The south side displays, from east to west, an early 14th-century curvilinear two-light window and an early 12th-century round-arched window with a billeted sill. A 17th-century studded door is set in an early 12th-century south doorway with roll-moulded cushion capitals. A gabled 15th-century south porch has an open timber arcade of trefoiled lights to each side and an arch-braced common-rafter roof. The west end features an early 14th-century three-light curvilinear window with flowing tracery. The nave has a fine early 12th-century corbel table with carved heads of similar variety to those in the chancel.

Interior

The chancel contains an early 12th-century quadripartite stone vault supported on corner shafts with cushion capitals. An early 14th-century double piscina features reticulated tracery. An early 18th-century communion rail has elaborately carved turned balusters, and 17th-century panelled dados are present in the sanctuary. A 15th-century chancel screen has a lower plank partition carved with blind tracery, with a renewed top and cusped heads.

The tower arches are early 12th-century, each with a zig-zag carved hood over two orders of roll moulding set on jamb shafts with cushion capitals. A plain early 12th-century doorway provides access to the tower stairs.

The nave contains fine Jacobean stalls, much renewed in the 19th century, which were brought here in the 1870s from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. A mid-19th-century pulpit with traceried panels stands on an early 12th-century tub font. Eighteen ancient benches, probably 15th-century, feature bench ends of chamfered panels with a central muntin. Two fine 18th-century brass chandeliers are hung in the nave.

Wall paintings include fragments on the east chancel wall and of 14th-century canopied figures at the east end of the nave. Parts of a 14th-century Doom painting survive over the tower arch, along with fragments of early 12th-century painted consecration crosses at the west end of the nave.

Monuments include three 19th-century wall tablets. A floor brass at the east end of the nave commemorates Roger Cheyne, died 1414, and displays a simple foliated cross. A brass to Thomas Neal, died 1590, depicts a shrouded figure. A mid-18th-century Cosier monument on the north wall of the nave is set in an architectural frame. A similar monument to the south, surmounted by an urn with a winged cherub's head, commemorates Francis Seale, died 1720.

Stained Glass

The east window dates to 1848. The chancel north window contains 16th-century armorial glass and a 16th-century Flemish rounder depicting the Story of Joseph. The east windows of the nave contain 14th-century roundels of the head of Christ and two deacon saints to the south and 16th-century Flemish glass to the north. The late 19th-century west window has reset 16th to 18th-century Flemish glass.