Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

This parish church, commanding a prominent position in the village of Duntisbourne Abbots, dates principally to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 13th, 15th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed in random rubble and dressed limestone with a stone slate roof.

The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a vestry to the north of the chancel. The west tower rises in two stages beneath a saddleback roof with parapet gables. It features a 13th-century two-light west window with hoodmould, a small lancet to the south set within a Norman opening, and square-headed bell openings to three faces of the belfry, each fitted with a quatrefoil-pierced stone grille.

The north aisle has a lean-to roof and is notable for very large quoins at its north-west corner. Its western end contains a 14th-century two-light window, while the north-facing wall displays two paired 13th-century windows with trefoil heads set in square openings. The south aisle was added during the 1872 restoration by Waller & Son and has a double-pitched roof. It contains paired plain lancets in its south wall, a paired lancet with hoodmould in the west end wall, and a single lancet in the east end with quatrefoil tracery above a trefoil head. A single buttress with offsets strengthens the south wall.

The chancel's east window is a two-light design with plate tracery. The north wall holds a single trefoil-headed lancet, and the south wall two similar lancets. A clasping buttress at the south-east corner provides structural support. All gables feature parapets with cross-gablet saddles and trefoil-headed side panels.

The south porch showcases a re-erected Early English doorway with hoodmould, its opening surrounded by a pierced cross porch vent in a square opening over a pointed arch. Stone seats line the interior, each with a small lancet above in the side wall. A brass memorial shield to Anthony Sly, dated 1736, is mounted to the left of the porch arch. A stone sundial sits above the vent. The porch roof dates to the 19th century.

The interior was completely stripped during the 1872 restoration and now displays ribbon-pointed masonry. The two-bay nave arcades to north and south are notable: the northern arcade is Transitional in style, featuring a single cylindrical column with a scalloped capital, while the southern arcade is a matching 19th-century creation. The late Norman tower arch has plain abaci to its piers. The chancel arch is a triplet designed by Waller, with base walls featuring chamfered corners and pyramid stops below side arches supporting paired granite columns with crocket capitals; the side arches have trefoil heads.

The nave roof spans four bays with king-post trusses and curved wind braces. The south aisle retains a wagon roof with a corbel table above the arcade. Pointed arched openings connect the south aisle and chancel to an organ chamber. The chancel has a raised stone floor and plastered walls of late 20th-century date, with a 19th-century roof of three bays featuring arched braced collar-trusses and curved wind braces. A round-arched doorway opens into the vestry.

The chancel contains a square-headed aumbry in its east wall and a pedestal piscina in the south at a notably low level, owing to the raising of the floor in the 19th century. A flat-fronted 19th-century stone lectern stands in the nave. A Medieval stone coffin lies in the north aisle, and a square-headed aumbry occupies the north wall. A very small aumbry is set into the south wall at the east end of the aisle. A circular Norman stone font in the south aisle displays carved trilobed foliage in low relief on its bowl. The south door is possibly Medieval, fitted with a 15th-century closing ring. Numerous 19th-century memorial tablets, particularly concentrated at the west end of the nave, are present throughout.

Stained glass by Lavers, Barraud & Westlake of 1878 fills all windows, resulting in a very dark interior. The vestry to the north of the chancel features a shouldered arched doorway and a single trefoil-headed lancet facing east.

The church was originally a possession of St. Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, reflecting its historical significance and ecclesiastical connections.