Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church on the south side of the Green in Edensor. The building dates from the 12th and 15th centuries but was substantially rebuilt in 1867 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It is designed in 13th-century Gothic style and presents ample and impressive proportions. The exterior is constructed in sandstone ashlar with Westmorland slate roofs, coped gables with cross finials to the east, and coped ridges. The building features a moulded plinth and cornice throughout.

The plan comprises a west tower, aisled nave with north and south porches, chancel, north vestry, and south-east chapel.

The west tower rises in four unequal stages divided by moulded bands. It has angle buttresses with three set-offs and a south-east stair turret projection to the lower part. The west face displays a three-light window with cusped intersecting tracery. Above this is a pair of deeply set lancets, with another lancet to the south and three more to the north. A circular clock face sits above these openings. All four sides of the tower feature tall bell openings comprising deeply moulded paired lights with reticulation units, supported by pairs of colonnettes beneath moulded arches. An arched corbel table runs around the tower. The ashlar spire has broaches supporting canopied niches, with gabled and pinnacled lucarnes and rolls ascending the angles.

The south aisle features a diagonal buttress to the south-west, followed by a three-light flat-arched window with cusped ogee lights. A reset 15th-century porch is gabled and battlemented with a plainly moulded arched entrance. To its right are two flat-arched two-light windows with ogee lights separated by a buttress. Tiny square clerestory windows with cusping are arranged in a 1-2-2-2-1 pattern.

The gabled south-east chapel is partly engaged by the aisle. Its west face displays a circular window with a quatrefoil. On the south side are three buttresses flanking two flat-arched two-light windows with reticulation units. Between the windows is a plainly moulded priests' doorway, with a hoodmould continuing as the window sill. The door is planked with decorative wrought-iron hinges. A three-light east window comprises cusped lancets and ogees above. The principal east window features three trefoiled cusped lights with three encircled trefoils above. Three buttresses occupy the east face; above the centre one is an elaborately carved animal rainwater head.

The north side of the chancel displays a flat-arched two-light window with cusped ogees containing genuine 14th-century tracery. The vestry has a pointed-arched doorway to the east with a planked door of elaborate iron hinges. To the north is a two-light window with cusped ogees beneath a flat arch.

The north aisle comprises two bays with two-light flat-arched windows of cusped ogee lights divided by buttresses. In the third bay stands a gabled porch with a pointed-arched entrance of two plainly moulded orders and a double return flight of stone steps. To its right is another similar window and a small almost round-arched window with a reused head. The clerestory is on the south side only.

Interior

The north porch contains an inner doorway with a moulded arch on colonnettes and a planked door with elaborate scrolled iron hinges. The 15th-century south porch has a stone roof on a single chamfered rib, with stone seats. Reset within the walls are fragments of a foliated cross grave cover, a carved shaft, and a capital. A 12th-century round-arched south doorway, much renewed, features chevron in the arch and hoodmould with headstops. The planked door is fitted with decorative ironwork.

The nave comprises four bays with arcades alternating between octagonal and circular piers and responds topped with crocket capitals and double-chamfered pointed arches. The south-west respond is partly medieval, as are parts of the third pier to the east and the west respond on the north side, along with the third pier to the east on that side. A tall moulded tower arch dies into the imposts. The chancel arch is moulded, decorated with a band of flowers on naturalistic leaf capitals supported by shafts on moulded corbels.

The chancel south has a two-bay arcade with an octagonal pier and capital, moulded arches and hoodmould resting on foliage stops. A plain arch opens to the north organ chamber, and a plain doorway with roll moulding accesses the vestry. The south wall of the chancel displays a rich piscina and double sedilia featuring polished red and grey marble columns and capitals. The arches are double sub-cusped with moulding drawn up to a slight ogee, topped with steep crocketed gables. Encircled quatrefoils fill the field. The piscina has a small ogee arch of medieval date.

Pointed barrel-vaulted timber roofs cover the nave, chancel, and chapel. The nave roof has cusped principals on polygonal shafts and naturalistic leaf corbels. The chancel is tiled with marble and alabaster dado and reredos.

A huge monument in the chapel commemorates William, First Earl of Devonshire, and Henry Cavendish, who died in 1625 and 1616 respectively. The two bodies lie beneath a low four-poster with black Ionic columns and a black covering slab. Henry is represented as a skeleton on a straw mat, while William appears in his shroud with his face exposed. Above stands elaborate architecture flanked by two martial figures. Arches on either side display armour on the left and purple, coronet, and sword on the right. In the centre, an angel holds the black inscription tablet while blowing a trumpet. The whole is surmounted by a large broken pediment. The monument has been attributed to Colt.

The interior furnishings include 19th-century wooden Gothic communion rails and choir stalls with poppy heads. The organ sits beneath coving with cantilevered pipes. A rich 19th-century pulpit in black and ruby marble features a semicircular plan with intersecting arcading and leaf capitals; the base has seven detached shafts. A circular marble font has a base with four red granite colonnettes and a bowl decorated with trefoiled arcading, leaf capitals, and cable moulding. The nave has plain open wooden benches.

The church contains good 19th-century stained glass in the west and two east windows. The chapel east window dates from 1882 and is by Hardman. A 19th-century wooden lectern stands in the church. An old font in the south aisle features a panelled bowl and stem, with the bowl ornamented with trefoiled arches; it possibly dates from the 16th century. A medieval piscina in the south aisle has a plainly chamfered arch. Hanging vase-like light fittings illuminate the interior. A brass commemorates John Beton, who died in 1570 and served Mary Queen of Scots.