Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Parish church, originally a chapelry of Ashburton, dating from the 15th or early 16th century. The building is constructed of granite rubble with slated roofs. The south wall of the nave and chancel, and the north wall of the chancel, are covered with roughcast. The plan comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle and transept, south porch, and west tower.

The exterior of the main body has undergone heavy restoration, with little that can certainly be dated before 1907-8, except for a 2-light window in the south wall of the chancel with chamfered lights and round arches, and a 3-light east window retaining old moulded jambs. The south porch is much restored but preserves its original moulded doorway with a 2-centred arch at the front and hollow-moulded corbel-tables at the sides. Inside the porch are old stone seats. The wagon roof appears to be a restoration.

The west tower is a 2-stage, battlemented structure that remains completely unrestored. The west door has a moulded 2-centred arch enclosed by a rectangular chamfered frame. Above it is an old window of circa 1300 appearance, with 2-pointed-arched lights set within a 2-centred arch and chamfered hood-mould. Against the south face stands a 5-sided stair turret with slit windows. The ringing chamber has a single round-arched window in the east face. The bell-chamber has paired apertures with 2-centred arches on the north, east and west faces, and a similar single aperture on the south face at the east side of the stair turret. A 20th-century clock with musical chime is set into the west face.

The interior features a granite arcade of 3 arches on the north side, with double-chamfered and 4-centred arches. The piers are fitted with 4 attached shafts with a hollow moulding between them. The tower arch is round-headed with chamfered imposts. On the north side of the chancel is a winding stone stair to the rood loft, accessed through a chamfered doorway with a Tudor arch. The south wall of the chancel contains a piscina with a roughly shouldered head. The wagon roofs are 20th-century restorations.

Fittings include a Norman limestone font of goblet type with palmette, ressetts and cable ornament. An original traceried wooden screen survives with painted figures on the lower panels, most on the south side having been destroyed; the reverse side has 4 large panels with figures painted in black and white, and the traceried openings above retain much old paint, though the canopy is a restoration. An early 18th-century wooden pulpit, 6-sided with raised-and-fielded panels on the sides, has its rear side developed into a tall, fluted Doric pilaster flanked by scrolls. Over the south door is a board painted with the royal arms of George II, dated 1745. Three slate tablets in the north aisle, carved in the 19th century, display the creed and 10 commandments. Beneath the tower arch lie some reset medieval glazed tiles. The floor of the north aisle contains 4 slate tomb slabs, one dated 1593. An old photograph displayed in the church shows box pews removed during the 1907-8 restoration; parts of these may survive within the panelled dado now lining the nave, aisle and transept.