Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Anglican parish church built 1842–43 by G. G. Scott and W. B. Moffatt. Constructed in limestone ashlar and dressed stone with tiled roofs. The building was erected at a cost of £1260 to replace a Medieval church that stood beside the stream in the village.

The church follows a Neo-Norman design with a plan comprising a nave, south and north aisles, south tower over the entrance, south transept, and chancel. The south tower has three stages with angle buttresses and string courses. The entrance features a double-chamfered round-arched doorway with scalloped capitals to the shafts and a hoodmould. The second stage of the tower contains a single round-arched window with a pair of shafts. The bell stage has a 2-light round-arched louvred opening with attached shafts, below which runs a Lombard frieze and corbel table supporting a battlemented parapet. A square stair turret in the east angle rises to a cylindrical upper stage with a conical roof.

The south transept is distinguished by angle buttresses, a round-arched window with shafts, a round-arched niche above, and an east window also of round-arched form with a hoodmould. It features a corbel table to the eaves and a coped verge to the gabled front.

The chancel displays three round-arched lancets with hoodmoulds on both south and north sides, corbel tables to the eaves, and an east end with angle buttresses. The east end is dominated by a group of three round-arched windows with attached shafts supporting hoodmoulds.

The north aisle contains four round-arched windows with hoodmoulds and intermediate pilaster buttresses, with a corbel table extending to the nave roof eaves. The west end of the nave features a round-arched window flanked by blind arches with attached shafts and hoodmoulds, above which sits a niche with shafts. Both aisles have one round-arched window to the west. The south aisle, to the left of the tower, has one further round-arched window with a hoodmould.

The interior porch at the tower base contains a chamfered round-arched inner doorway with attached shafts, while the east wall features a chamfered shouldered doorway providing access to the stairs. The west side of the porch has three open round-arches on columns forming a recess that contains a recumbent 14th-century knight, Sir Thomas West, brought from the earlier church in the village.

The four-bay nave is spanned by a braced king-post tie-beam roof with arch-braced collar trusses to the half-bays. The north aisle arcade comprises four roll-moulded round arches on cylindrical piers with transitional-style capitals, while the south aisle has four round arches on octagonal piers with scrolled floral carved capitals. Both aisle roofs are of lean-to form. Flagstone flooring runs throughout the church.

The south transept features a three-bay arch-braced collar roof and houses the vestry and organ. The chancel is entered through a roll-moulded chancel arch carried on stylised stiff-leaf corbels, and has a plain three-bay arch-braced collar roof on stone corbels.

The furnishings include a fine Neo-Norman cylindrical font with interlaced round-arches on shafts positioned at the west end, and a Neo-Norman stone pulpit with four open arches. The readers desk has two open arches. A small 18th-century font with an octagonal pedestal stands in the north aisle, and 19th-century pews occupy the nave.

The church contains some notable stained glass. The west window depicts the Baptism of Christ and was created by H. Hughes of London in 1981. The fine south transept glass commemorates Reverend J. H. Samler, died 1882, while the east window glass commemorates Sidney Lord Herbert, died 1877.