Church of St. Peter

The Church of St. Peter is a parish church dating to the 15th century, with significant alterations in the 1860s by Butterfield. It is constructed primarily of ashlar limestone to the tower and south wall of the nave, with the remainder being coursed limestone rubble. The roof is covered with graded stone slates, although the chancel has concrete slates.

The church features a tall, five-bay nave, narrow aisles, and a chancel. A south porch, also in ashlar, is positioned in the middle of the five bays and incorporates three mass dials. The nave windows are uniform, featuring trefoiled three-light designs, while the east side has three lancets. The tower is three-stage, with west angle buttresses, a stair tower, and short, crocketed pinnacles rising from a crenellated parapet.

Internally, the nave roof is from the 15th century, exhibiting knee braced collars, moulded tie beams, and a brattished cornice plate. The eastern tie beam retains the base of a rood. The roof's collar purlin replaced an earlier, steeper pitched roof, as evidenced by the tower's creasing. The aisle roofs are also 15th century, with moulded principal rafters and purlins forming plastered panels. The east bay of the nave aisles is enclosed by parclose screens, likely partly from the 15th century, restored and painted, as is the chancel screen. One parclose houses an organ installed in 1873 by Ingram, and the other contains a squint to the chancel.

Fragmentary wall paintings were found over the chancel arch, covering the whole nave and painted in the later 19th century, which were undergoing removal in 1984. A hexagonal pulpit, heavily carved and dated 1629, was a gift from John Kniston and includes an original wrought iron book stand. Chancel fittings were added by Butterfield in 1873-74 and include an oak communion rail. The font, dating to 1860, was designed by Reverend F Goddard, replicating a font from Over, Cambridgeshire, replacing a sixteen-sided bowl now located at the west end of the aisle.

Numerous monuments are present. In the north aisle is a damaged wall tomb with a recumbent knight dating to around 1380 beneath a cinquefoiled, crocketed canopy and ogee panelling. Sections of painted wood aedicule panel, depicting Elizabeth Goddard who died in 1585, dated 1605, featuring life-size kneeling figures of a knight and his wife, are now in the apertures of the rood loft. A 13th-century incised cross tomb slab is mounted above the north door. The church contains an excellent monument to Thomas Spackman, a local carpenter, by John Devall Jnr, Royal master mason of London, considered Devall's best work. This monument depicts a Romantic standing figure of Spackman flanked by his mourning children, with a cast of his carpenter's tools set before him. Other memorial tablets are present, including those to Elizabeth Millington (1783), Richard Broome (1803), Edmund Hitchcock (1827), Christopher Broome (1830), Robert Millington (1831), and Ann Beavan (1821), by Franklin of Porton and Stroud. Floor slabs commemorate William Phillips (1622) and Thomas Norris (1673). A 17th-century parish chest is also present.

The church contains fragments of yellow stained medieval glass including heads of queens, crowns, suns, a Swiss panel, Conrad Neyrr, Pfarrer of Kilchberg, and four Flemish panels. A baroque carved Goddard arms panel is located over the north door. A blue slate headstone from 1963 commemorates Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and his wife, who also donated the churchyard gates. A brass of the Quintin or Cobham family also dates to around 1380.