Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Langley Burrell

An Anglican parish church of complex construction spanning the 12th to 15th centuries, carefully restored in the late 19th century. The chancel was restored in 1890 by C.E. Ponting and the nave and north aisle in 1898 by H. Brakspear. The building is constructed in rubble stone with stone slate roofs and coped gables.

The plan comprises a nave, north aisle, transeptal south tower with porch in the angle, chancel, and south-east chapel. The nave features coped gables with an original crucifix finial at the east end dating to around 1300, and a west end with triple stepped cusped lancets from the same period. The south side has a 15th-century flat-headed four-light window with hoodmould. The hipped porch dates to around 1300 and is equipped with a small upper lancet and gargoyle on each face, a two-chamfer pointed arch, and a Perpendicular two-light west window with hoodmould. The porch interior contains a fine 15th-century tierceron-star vault with carved corbels and bosses, a tall plank door within a pointed arched doorway, a stone seat on the west side, and an early 18th-century door to the tower on the north side set in a raised moulded depressed-arched surround. A cusped piscina is also present.

The three-stage south tower dates to the early 14th century and has a flat parapet with a ball-flower frieze and large two-light pointed bell-openings. The second stage contains deep-set lancets with trefoil heads, while clasping buttresses support the exterior. The base stage retains a fine but mutilated early 14th-century tomb recess with ball-flower and cusping, containing eroded paired effigies said to be of Sir John de la Mere and his wife, lords of the manor from 1304. A large renewed three-light window is positioned above. The east side displays the barbed-trefoil head of a 14th-century window, its lower part removed to allow for a small late 15th-century south-east chapel built in ashlar with a battlemented parapet. This chapel has flat-headed three-light windows to the south (blocked) and east.

The chancel dates to around 1300 and features on its south side a small boarded opening into the sedilia and a 15th-century flat-headed three-light window. The east end has low-angle and centre buttresses and early 14th-century triple stepped cusped lancets. The north side contains one 15th-century three-light window and two cusped lancets from around 1300. The north aisle has a 15th-century lower pitched roof, an ashlar battlemented parapet with finials, and three-light windows on the north side flanking a 13th-century pointed door. The east end displays a three-light window from around 1300 and the west end a cusped lancet of the same date.

The interior of the nave features a 15th-century wagon roof with moulded ribs on five bays supported by finely carved corbels. The west window has a rear arch. A three-bay arcade dating to around 1200 runs the length of the north side, constructed with circular piers, bases and circular capitals showing sparse stiff-leaf carving, with slightly pointed two-chamfer arches. A small additional arch was inserted at the west end in the early 14th century. A fine moulded chancel arch from around 1300 features shafts with moulded capitals to the right and carved leaf capitals to the left, with keel-moulding between large inner and smaller outer shafts. A pointed arch opens to a squint on the right and a high opening to the former rood-loft on the left. The tower's north arch is heavily moulded with two ogees and one chamfer; head corbels are positioned under the ringing floor, and a renewed cinquefoil cusped rear arch frames the three-light south window. A pointed three-chamfer arch cuts through the two-light east window into the south-east chapel, with a cinquefoil rear arch to the original window head and fine carved head stops.

The north aisle has a 15th-century low-pitched four-bay roof with moulded beams and rear arches to the west and east windows. A mutilated canopied niche with a smaller niche above occupies the north-east angle. The chancel roof is plastered with two thin king-post trusses. Cinquefoil cusped rear arches frame two north lancets, with traces of two similar arches on the south wall. A fine pair of 14th-century sedilia survives—the larger with a cinquefoil head and crocketed gable, the smaller with a cinquefoil cusp. A cusped piscina is present, to the right of which a broad 15th-century four-centred arch opens into the south-east chapel.

The church contains various fittings and monuments. The nave holds an ornate font of around 1860 and an 18th-century fielded panelled pulpit. The north aisle contains an 18th-century baluster font and a large plaque to T. Ashe (died 1823) signed by T. King. The chancel has stained glass dating to around 1900-10, a coloured marble plaque of around 1770 to E. Speke, two mid-17th-century plaques, and at the east end a well-carved plaque with heraldry to Reverend A. Lynch (died 1691) and 18th-century turned baluster communion rails. The south-east chapel contains a fine coloured marble memorial of the late 18th century to M. Humphrys signed by T. Paty & Son, a plaque of around 1695 to M. Rayner, and a marble floor slab to J. Ashe (died 1704).