Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

This is an Anglican parish church of 12th-century foundation, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 12th to 20th centuries. The building comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, porch and west tower. The walls are constructed of large blocks of finely dressed limestone coursed together, with the north and east walls of the chancel partially rebuilt. The porch and tower are of limestone rubble with dressed quoins, and the roofs are of stone slate.

The chancel displays 12th-century work including a corbel table on the south wall, comprising simple brackets with stones between them decorated with shallow double-chevron motifs. Above this runs a chamfered cornice decorated with large pellet ornament. The south wall contains two 13th-century two-light windows with plate tracery and scroll-moulded hoods and stops, with a blocked lancet between them. The east window is a three-light opening within a rectangular surround, topped with crudely executed asymmetrical Perpendicular tracery. The north wall has a flat-chamfered eaves cornice with pellet decoration (partially reconstructed after the wall's rebuilding in 1890-1), and retains two corbels at its east end, with blocks decorated with shallow carved chevron motifs reused lower down.

The nave's south wall has a corbel table similar to that on the chancel south wall, with some corbels carved with beasts or human heads. Two 19th-century two-light windows with cinquefoil-headed lights flank the porch. A 14th-century buttressed porch projects from the south side with a pointed arch of two orders and moulded hood, stone seats along the side walls, and a flagged floor. The porch contains a 20th-century plank door within a 12th-century surround decorated with intersecting circles and diaper work, enclosed in a chevroned arch supported on jamb shafts with voluted capitals and tongued bases.

The tower is in three stages with a moulded plinth, strings between stages, and hollow-moulded stone-mullioned casements with trefoil-headed lights on the ground floor's west face. A stone sundial with metal gnomon is positioned left of a slit window on the first floor's south side. The third stage contains two trefoil-headed bellcote openings with carved spandrels and stone slate louvres, and two large square stone clock faces on its east and west faces. The tower is topped with a battlemented parapet with moulded string and weathervane.

The roofs have flat and stepped coping at the gable ends, with an early cross finial at the chancel gable apex and a similar 19th-century example at the nave gable. The porch gable is capped with a carved saddle, possibly once bearing a cross finial.

The interior reveals a three-bay nave arcade with cylindrical piers and large overhanging scalloped capitals with pointed arches. The chancel arch is a fine 12th-century example of three orders rising from engaged columns with voluted capitals. The two outer orders have chevroned decoration, whilst the inner order displays double chevron motifs with finely carved four-petal flowers. A 19th-century pointed arch connects the chancel to the late 19th-century vestry, and another such arch connects the east end of the north aisle to the vestry. A double-chamfered pointed arch leads from the nave to the tower base, but was blocked in 1954 with a 20th-century plank door flanked by single lights with chamfered jambs. Above this is a blocked single 12th-century round-headed light. The nave roof is 19th-century with four bays, braced collar and V-struts, with curved wind-bracing below the purlin. The chancel roof is a 20th-century panelled structure with brattished cornice. A segmental-headed piscina sits right of the altar. A carved stone fragment, possibly representing a gate, is set in the splay of the window right of the altar. The flooring comprises stone flags and parquet.

The furnishings include an octagonal stone font of 1784 in Gothick style near the south door, a fine early 18th-century oak pulpit decorated with simple inlay and finely carved nulling around its top, and a fine brass Art Nouveau lectern in memory of Major General William Noel Waller (died 1909). A 17th-century communion rail with turned balusters remains, and the stone altar table is supported by three circular stone columns. The 20th-century pews and choir stalls are modern additions.

Monuments include a small brass inscription plaque to Thomas Cox of Lincoln's Inn, barrister (died 1658) under the chancel arch, and a large stone ledger at the centre of the chancel aisle to Miriam (died 1734) and John Eykyn (died 1768). Two small brass plaques commemorate Dorothy Smith, wife of William Smith of Alvscote, Oxon (died 1668), and Humphrey Smith (died 1659). A small brass plaque in the ledger records Winnifred Smith (died 1662). Two stone ledgers in front of the altar commemorate Humphrey Smith (died 1687 or 1688) and Elizabeth Dynely (died 1789). A possibly 16th- or 17th-century carved stone with heraldic emblems features a crowned rose at its centre, a tree on the right, and a gate-like emblem (matching a carved stone in the chancel window splay), with a pointed moulded hood with foliate decoration. Three 20th-century monuments are located on the south wall of the nave. The east window contains 19th-century stained glass.

The north aisle was rebuilt in 1890-1. The building was comprehensively documented in David Verey's The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds (1979).