Church of St Peter is a Grade I listed building in the Torridge local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 October 1960. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Peter
- WRENN ID
- sacred-solder-larch
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Torridge
- Constituency
- Torridge and Tavistock MP: Sir Geoffrey Cox (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 October 1960
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Peter, Dowland
- OS grid reference
- SS 567 103
- Coordinates
- 50.87454, -4.03672
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Peter is a parish church with fabric dating back to the Norman period, with significant additions from the 15th and early 16th centuries, and a partial restoration in 1876. The building is constructed of rubble walls, rendered on the south side of the nave and east end, and has a gabled slate roof. The plan includes a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, and a west tower.
The west tower is crenellated with crocketted pinnacles and two-light granite belfry openings. It features slits for stairs on the north side, a four-centred granite west doorway with roll and hollow moulding and arched hoodmould, and a three-light Perpendicular window with one renewed mullion. The north aisle has two early 16th-century three-light segmental-headed granite mullion windows with hoodmoulds, along with a similar window at its east end. The east window is a three-light Early English style, likely a restoration. A 20th-century priest’s doorway is located on the south side of the chancel. The south nave wall has a 14th-century style, partially restored, traceried window. The south porch is plain gabled with a round-headed doorway.
The church's interior is notable for its three-bay oak arcade, one of only two such arcades surviving in Devon. The arcade features partly restored four-centred chamfered arches and Persner A-type piers, with one circular stone pier at the west end. There is no chancel arch, and the tower arch is plain and pointed. Original 16th-century carved bench ends remain, primarily in the nave and aisle, featuring motifs associated with the Stafford and Kellaway families. Wagon roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses have been partly restored, while the chancel roof is plastered. A small, roughly octagonal late medieval font sits on a 20th-century base, accompanied by a 19th or early 20th-century pulpit. Slate memorials, largely from the first half of the 17th century and commemorating members of the Stafford family, are also present. The porch has an arch-braced roof, which may be original. A narrow, roundheaded Norman south doorway is located on the south side and has been plastered. The internal walls are plastered.
Local climate
Church of St Peter sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 79% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 21 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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