Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church with a complex building history spanning from the 11th century to the 19th century. The structure possibly contains 11th-century fabric in a reset north transeptal arch, 13th-century fabric in the chancel, and 15th to early 16th-century work to the west tower, south aisle and nave. The north transept was also probably rebuilt in the 15th century. The church underwent major restoration in 1862 and 1880, with further alterations in 1889 when the chancel was also restored.

The building is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs with gable ends. The original plan was probably cruciform, but was remodelled in the 15th century to comprise a west tower, nave, chancel, north transept, south aisle and south porch.

The impressively tall west tower is of four stages with an embattled parapet, the battlements pierced with quatrefoils. It has projected crocketted corner pinnacles and setback buttresses also surmounted with crocketted pinnacles. A shallow rectangular north-east stair turret is present. The tower features two-light pointed arched bell-openings and an additional two-light window in the same style on the south side of the first stage. Above is a large pointed arched Perpendicular-style transomed west window of four lights, which sits above a Perpendicular doorway with fleuron decoration to the central hollow of the moulded surround.

The south aisle contains four 19th-century pointed arched Perpendicular-style windows of two lights with quatrefoil tracery. The south porch has a 15th-century two-centred arched doorway with an ogee flanking hollow moulded surround, and a slate sundial dated 1767 above. The porch interior has a Perpendicular unceiled waggon roof with carved bosses at the intersections. The inner doorway features a pointed arch with an original framed and ledged door, six planks wide. Buttresses with offsets appear on each side of the middle window to the right of the porch and at the right end of the south aisle priests' doorway below the right-hand window.

The chancel and east end of the south aisle contain 19th-century three-light windows with trefoil, quatrefoil and cinquefoil traceried heads. The chancel has 19th-century lancets on either side: one to the south side and two to the north. The north transept has a 19th-century three-light Perpendicular-style window, and there is a 19th-century window of three lights to the left and two lights to the right of a blocked north door to the nave.

Interior

The interior features unceiled waggon roofs throughout, largely reconstructed in the 19th century, with every fourth rib moulded and carved bosses at the intersections. The south arcade comprises four bays with Pevsner Type A moulded piers and standard leaf capitals. The easternmost pier has two canopied niches on its north-west and south-west sides. A tall moulded 15th-century pointed tower arch connects the nave to the tower. The Norman-style font has a square bowl, scalloped on the underside, on a short stem. A trefoil-headed piscina is present on the chancel south wall. The church contains 19th-century nave seating, communion rails, a patterned tiled chancel floor and a wrought iron bell-rope guide frame to the tower.

Monuments and Furnishings

The chancel north side contains wall monuments to Jane, wife of Reverend William Spencer (died 1815) by Stephens of Exeter with an oval inscription plate and urn to the right, and to William Merricke (died 1595) with a kneeling figure flanked by Ionic pilasters and a skull to the top. A rectangular pilastered plaque with plaster moulded surround commemorates Edward Chichester, with a central heraldic shield, initials EC to the top corners and "Rector 1725" to the base. The chancel south side has a tablet to Mary Westcott, daughter of the Rector (died 1648) with elaborate verse.

The nave north side contains a large wall monument to Richard Berry Esq (died 1645) with a Nowy-arched head containing heraldic shields and Ionic pilasters flanking kneeling figures of parents and children facing each other, with two small slate plaques with inscriptions below. Two 19th-century wall monuments are present to Mary Watts (died 1814) and her husband with verse, and to Richard Norman (died 1796) and other family members, both with fluted pilasters. The right-hand monument has elaborate urns to the head flanking an angels' head and a representation of a hand holding a knife to a felled tree to the base.

The south aisle contains a wall monument to Joseph Davie Bassett of Watermouth (died 1846) and other family members, a tablet by Kendal of Exeter to Lieutenant Colonel Harris (died 1814), and a semi-circular headed wall monument to John Bowden (died 1766) and others.

Stained Glass

The majority of windows, except the aisle east window, contain 19th-century patterned glass. The west window of the north aisle commemorates Eleanor Bassett of Watermouth (died 1881).