Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

An Anglican parish church of 12th- and 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in 1844 by architect T.H. Wyatt and restored in 1874. The building is constructed of rubble stone with dressed limestone to the chancel, and has a stone slate roof with coped verges and cross finials.

The church plan comprises a west tower, aisleless nave with north porch and south vestry, and a 19th-century chancel. The gabled porch features a double chamfered pointed doorway with an original studded and ledged door and coped verge. The nave has two 19th-century pointed windows either side of the porch, flanked by 19th-century buttresses with offsets. The south side of the nave contains four 2-light 19th-century pointed windows and one cusped lancet with hoodmould.

The chancel, designed in 13th-century style during the 1844 rebuilding, has two trefoiled lancets to its north side, a diagonal buttress, and a 3-light pointed window to the east end. The south side is attached to a vestry said to date from 1829 as a Sunday School, which features two 3-light mullioned windows with elliptical arched lights and hoodmoulds, with a stone chimney stack on its west gable end over a gabled stone porch.

The two-stage tower, possibly of 12th-century date, has angle buttresses, a chamfered lancet to the west side, and a bellstage containing a pair of roll-moulded round-headed lights with latticed stone louvres. The tower retains what is possibly a 12th-century string course and corbel table on its north and south sides, with a saddleback roof.

The interior porch contains fixed stone benches and preserves a 12th-century doorway with chevron ornament to its round arch; the left-hand shaft has a scalloped capital, while the right shaft bears a capital with mask. An inserted Tudor-arched doorway with double planked doors overlies this original opening.

The nave has a 5-bay 19th-century deep arch-braced collar truss roof on stone corbels, a polychrome tiled floor, and ashlar-lined walls. The narrow double-chamfered tower arch is fitted with wrought iron gates. An octagonal 19th-century stone font with painted floral decoration and carved rosettes stands beneath.

The 19th-century pointed chancel arch is carried on attached shafts. The chancel itself has a 2-bay deep arch-braced collar truss roof similar to the nave, with a small restored chamfered pointed piscina on the south wall and a trefoiled aumbry on the north wall. A segmental pointed door leads to the vestry.

Furnishings and fittings include a 17th-century communion table with turned legs, a 19th-century mosaic reredos, and a 19th-century communion rail in brass and wood. A good 17th-century octagonal pulpit with arched panels and lozenges is reset on a 19th-century stone plinth, with linenfold panelling behind. Additional reset linenfold panelling is located behind the organ on the west wall of the nave. The nave and chancel contain 19th-century seating throughout.

The church contains stained glass mostly dating to the 1860s and 1870s, including a north chancel window of 1905 signed by J. Bell and Son of Bristol, commissioned in memory of Charles and Elizabeth Kendall (she died 1904).

Three bells are dated 1623, 1724, and 1783.

The church possesses a good collection of 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century memorial tablets. Chancel examples include a stone tablet to Sara Grant (died 1602), a cartouche to the children of the Reverend Richard Ford (late 17th century), a pedimented tablet with fluted pilasters to Mary Sartain (died 1712), and a bolection-moulded tablet to William Watson. Nave tablets include a bolection-moulded example to Mary Hayward (died 1717), a shaped tablet to Jane, Elizabeth and Susanna Cottle (died 1754, 1765 and 1769), a stone tablet with good lettering to Thomas Butler (died 1713), and several 19th-century black and white marble tablets, including one to Wade Browne (died 1851) signed by Gaffin of London.