Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A chapel of ease designed by Sidney Gambier Parry in the Early English style and built in 1888. The church is constructed of random rock-faced limestone with a red tile roof.

The building comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, a shallow south transept, a gabled triple bell bellcote, and a short chancel. A rock-faced plinth runs around the exterior with a flat-chamfered upper moulding.

The south wall features a gabled projecting porch on the left with panelled part-glazed pointed doors, a moulded hood and foliate stops. Above the porch is an image niche containing the figure of St Peter. To the right of the porch are four lancet windows with a scroll-moulded continuous hoodmould. The clerestory has seven trefoil-headed squat lancets.

The south transept projects forward to the right, with buttresses featuring offsets. Two tall lancets light the gable end. Within the rock-faced limestone are bands of ashlar. The gabled triple bell bellcote rises from the east side of the transept, containing three trefoil-headed bell hangings.

The chancel has corner buttresses. Its east window comprises five graded lancets divided by mullions in alternating blocks of cream-coloured dressed sandstone and red sandstone, with a large rectangular panel below forming a chequer-board pattern of red and cream sandstone. Single lancet windows light the north and south walls.

The vestry has a basement accessed via a shouldered-arched doorway on the north side. Paired lancets at first floor level light the vestry. A chimney with two circular shafts rises from the eaves. A plank door with shouldered-arched surround provides access to a flat-roof extension on the west side of the vestry.

The north aisle has five lancet windows, with seven trefoil-headed lancets in its clerestory. The west end of the nave features a three-light window comprising three graded lancets. Below this is an arcade alternating three lancets with two blind panels crossed by bands of sandstone. Flat-coping and cross finials crown the gable ends. A wooden fleche rises towards the east end of the nave.

The interior contains a four-bay nave with a wagon roof incorporating bracing that rises from engaged marble colonettes with moulded Early English style capitals and bases. The sill below the clerestory windows continues as a string. The north and south aisles have lean-to roofs. The chancel is single-bay with a panelled wagon roof.

Four-bay arcades separate the nave from the north and south aisles. These comprise double-chamfered pointed arches rising from circular columns of alternating red and yellow sandstone with moulded capitals. A double pointed plank doorway in the north aisle provides access to the vestry. A tall pointed arch between the chancel and sanctuary has a moulded inner arch supported on red sandstone columns.

The flooring is wood block in the nave and coloured tile and encaustic tile in the chancel and sanctuary. Sedilia to the right of the altar are formed by the continuation downwards of the window splay above, with two trefoil-headed seats at each corner. A large shouldered credence shelf flanked by engaged marble columns stands to the left of the altar.

The east bay of the nave serves as the choir and is raised on two steps. It is enclosed by a decorative wrought iron screen above a low stone wall comprising alternate bands of cream and red sandstone. This wall and railing project outward at the north-west corner to form a pulpit with canted sides, fitted with a decorative wrought iron candlestick and reading stand on the handrail.

A simple cream-coloured limestone reredos with engaged red sandstone columns featuring foliate capitals and a moulded sill stands behind the altar. A nineteenth-century wooden altar table is positioned in the sanctuary. A fine carved late seventeenth or early eighteenth-century oak chair remains in the sanctuary. An eighteenth-century chest with fielded panels and chip-carved decoration is located in the south aisle.

The font at the west end of the church has a quatrefoil-shaped bowl. Its base comprises four conjoined colonettes of red sandstone with moulded bases and capitals on an octagonal plinth. The font cover is oak with wrought iron decoration.

The east and west windows contain nineteenth-century stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne dating to around 1888. Four simple twentieth-century memorials are mounted on the south wall of the south aisle.