Parish Church Of Saint Peter

The Anglican Parish Church of St Peter in Church Knowle village has origins in the 13th century, with a cruciform plan. A tower and porch were added in the 14th century, the upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a north aisle was added around 1833. The church is constructed of rubble stone with stone slate roofs and coped gables. It comprises a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, a north aisle, a west tower, and a south porch.

The unbuttressed tower has three stages topped with a pyramidal stone slate cap. Each stage contains plain rectangular windows with stone louvres in the upper stages, and there’s a doorway in the north wall. A date stone reading “1741, I C and E C, Churchwardens” is set into the south wall. A reset stone with an inscription, also found at Church Farm House, is in the west wall. The south porch has a plain two-centred arched doorway. The south transept features two-light 13th-century windows with a roundel above in its east and south walls. The south wall of the nave has two plain lancet windows, deepened in the early 19th century. The south wall of the chancel contains a priest’s door and a 13th-century two-light window with a quatrefoil above, alongside a 14th-century three-light square-headed window. The east window of the chancel, and two similar windows in the north wall, are also 13th century. The north wall of the north transept has a 13th-century window mirroring those in the south transept. The north aisle wall has two paired lancet windows.

Inside, the north aisle is separated from the nave by two timber columns supporting the nave roof and a gallery that extends across the west wall. The nave roof's trusses are of tie beam and queen post form, dating from around 1833. The 13th-century chancel arch is flanked by lower arches, originally intended for altar recesses. Traces of medieval floral painting remain. The 13th-century windows in the chancel have rere-arches, and squints to the transepts are cut through the window jambs. A piscina is located in the south wall of the south transept, along with a stone altar slab on a 19th-century timber base. An 18th-century monument stands on the west wall. Broken stone coffin slabs are set into window cills. In the north transept's east wall is a monument from 1572 to John Clarel, an altar-tomb with a crested canopy and an enriched soffite. The tomb’s base has four quatrefoiled panels, and the brasses depict figures and coats of arms, the latter coloured. Other fittings are 19th century.