Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with significant alterations in the 16th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The north chancel chapel is of 14th-century origin. The Early English tower collapsed in the early 19th century and was largely rebuilt during that time. The chancel was rebuilt in 1853, and the nave and north aisle were rebuilt around 1861 by J. Hayward. The church is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings, covered by slate roofs with apex crosses to the gable copings. Coped gable ends are present on the chancel and north aisle.

The tower is of three stages, featuring diagonal buttresses to the upper second stage and a crenellated parapet. It has square-headed bell openings with louvred cusped lights. A 2-light window with 4-centred arches sits above a 4-centred arched west doorway with a moulded surround and stone voussoirs. A 19th-century plank door with an overlight is in place. A small stair turret is visible on the north side, with three slit windows. A slated outshut is attached to the angle of the tower and north aisle. A clock face dated 1897 occupies the south side of the tower’s top stage, above a single 4-centred arched window. The nave has two 19th-century Perpendicular style pointed arched windows of 3 lights with hoodmoulds, flanking a south porch. The porch features a pointed arch supported on nook shafts with lipped capitals and a hoodmould decorated with human head corbels. A pointed arched inner doorway with a moulded surround is also present, along with blind quatrefoil panels. A buttress on the south side of the chancel contains two 3- and 2-light Perpendicular style windows with hoodmoulds, and an ornate forked pedimented buttress surrounding the priests’ doorway with a wave-moulded surround and plank door. The north aisle’s east window is 15th century, with a pointed arched hoodmould featuring labelled stops. The north side of the north aisle has a flat-arched window with three trefoil lights and a hoodmould, alongside three 3-light 19th-century Perpendicular windows with pointed arches and hoodmoulds.

Inside, the north aisle and chancel chapel are unified by a continuous arcade of 5 ½ bays. The first two bays and the right side of a smaller bay are original 14th-century fabric, exhibiting a sunken chamfer to the intrados of each arch. The nave arcade consists of segmental arches resting on octagonal piers with pyramid stops. There is an unmoulded, semi-circular arch leading to the tower. The nave roof is a 19th-century structure featuring seven arched-braced trusses. The chancel roof retains original timber, including arch braces to five trusses, and a carved wall plate adorned with intertwined foliage. 19th-century furnishings include a late west gallery and a hexagonal pulpit. Mawis patterned tiles are fitted to the altar step. Stained glass dating from 1890 is present at the east end. Wall monuments include a marble monument to Harrieta, wife of Rev. H.S. Pinder (died 1839), commemorating the 1853 chancel rebuilding, one to John Franklin Square, rector, and his wife Anne (died 1818 and 1801 respectively), and a large marble monument to Barth Wortley, former rector (died 1749), with plain pilasters, consoles, a scalloped base and a Doric entablature.