Church Of St Peter Parish Church Of St Peter

Church of St. Peter

A substantial parish church of the 12th to 14th centuries with some 19th-century restoration, located at Raunds on Berrister Place. The building is constructed of squared coursed limestone with ashlar dressings, featuring a distinctive ashlar west tower and spire with lead roofs throughout.

The church comprises an aisled nave and chancel, a south porch, and the prominent west tower. The exterior displays a mix of architectural periods and styles.

The chancel's south elevation shows a single window opening with a 3-light Perpendicular window beneath a 4-centred arch, decorated with transoms and cusping. The chancel has a clerestory and shallow gabled roof topped with castellated ashlar parapets. A particularly fine 6-light east window dating from around 1275, restored about 1900, contains a large cusped roundel surrounded by six quatrefoil circles, flanked by gabled buttresses with ashlar work.

The chancel's north elevation spans 3 bays and includes two ranges of 3-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred heads, transoms and cusping, separated by irregularly spaced 2- and 3-stage buttresses.

The south aisle and south chancel form a 9-bay elevation with a 7-window range. This includes four 3-light early Perpendicular windows lighting the nave aisle and two 3-light Perpendicular windows in the south chapel, all beneath 4-centred arch heads. Several windows feature carved label stops. A central 2-light square-headed window is accompanied by a Transitional south door with a stepped arch and single order of shafts. The aisle is divided by 2-stave buttresses and has a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapet. The easternmost section contains a 3-light Perpendicular window with segmental head, transoms and cusping, while a 3-light window with an ogee head opens to the west.

The two-storey south porch projects from the nave range, featuring a triple chamfered outer arch with three orders of renewed shafts. Above this is a 2-light window. The porch has a shallow gabled roof with castellated ashlar parapet adorned with a sundial and finial. The inner door is double stepped and chamfered with one order of shafts, and has moulded ceiling beams.

The north aisle extends 7 bays with a 6-window range of 6-light windows displaying flowing tracery. A double chamfered and stepped north door with one order of shafts is positioned in the bay to the right of centre. Between bays are 2-stage buttresses and ashlar parapets topped with two gargoyles. The aisle's east and west ends are lit by a 3-light and 4-light window respectively. Above the nave clerestory runs a 7-window range of 2-light Perpendicular windows with a shallow gabled roof, shallow castellated parapet and finial.

The chancel clerestory, limited to the south side, contains a 4-window range of 2-light square-headed windows.

The west tower is a fine Early English structure of four stages with 4-stage set-back angle buttresses. The nest portal (ground level) has a roll-moulded outer arch with cluster shafts and a similar recessed inner arch, flanked by small blank trefoil-head arches and central quatrefoil windows.

The second stage of the west face comprises a 4-bay arcade of single and double chamfered arches with cluster shafts. The central two bays contain lancets with roll mouldings, while the outer arcades are blank with trefoil heads and central quatrefoil windows. The north and south faces of the second stage are taller than the west face, featuring 4 bays of blank arcading with double chamfered arches, cluster piers and trefoil-head spandrels. The north face notably includes corbelled Y-tracery with carved figures at each arch apex and musicians depicted in the spandrels.

The third stage of the west face has a central gable flanked by diagonals forming a W-shape, with a 2-light trefoil-head window with shafts at its centre. Two blind quatrefoils flank this at the lower level and two more at the upper level. The north and south faces of the third stage contain 5 bays of blank arcades with shafts and a central 2-light window. The east face is similar. The fourth stage of each face has pairs of double lancet bell-chamber openings with double chamfered heads enclosing outer arches and shafts, with blank arches to left and right on each face.

Above sits a corbel table supporting a broach spire with three tiers of lucarnes, each decorated with Y-tracery.

The interior contains a five-bay nave arcade from the 13th century with double chamfered arches and octagonal piers. The two arcades show slight differences, suggesting slightly different construction phases. The south arcade has a half arch at the chancel abutment, and the second pier from the chancel is formed of two octagonal responds, probably corresponding to the 12th-century church's transept. A 12th-century window head is visible above the south arcade.

The chancel arch features hollow chamfering and two rows of ball flowers. The triple chamfered tower arch with shafts contains a 15th-century stone clock dial in its apex, with an inner arch below linking to the belfry rib vault, which has a central octagonal opening.

Between the chancel and south aisle are two and a half bays of chamfered arches with circular piers. Original moulded tie beams and corbels support the aisle roofs.

The liturgical arrangements include two piscinas and single sedilia with a crocketted gable to the right of the altar. A further piscina with trefoil head stands in the former south chapel, now used as a vestry. The baptismal font is 13th-century circular work with a ram's head attached to its bowl.

The chancel retains the base of a Perpendicular screen with reset screen fragments in the chancel arcades. A reredos with flowing tracery serves the north aisle altar. An 18th-century polygonal table, formerly the tester of the pulpit, survives. A brass chandelier, given in 1762, remains in place.

Monumental brasses commemorate John Tawyer (died 1470) and his wife, as well as a Lady dating to around 1500, positioned to the right of the chancel altar. A slab with brass indents lies to the left. John Wales, vicar (died 1496), is buried beneath a chest tomb with trefoil-head panels and no effigy. A coffin lid with foliated cross is preserved in the south aisle. Three 19th-century marble tablets adorn the north wall of the chancel.

Wall paintings of 15th-century date survive on the nave's north wall, depicting Pride and her six children, St. Christopher, and the Three Quick and Three Dead above the north doorway, with St. George also represented. Fragments of the legend of St. Catherine appear on the north aisle wall. Angels with instruments of the Passion are painted on the chancel arch.

The stained glass includes an east window by Kempe dating to 1907. Two 20th-century windows in the north aisle and one in the south aisle incorporate reset medieval glass fragments in their apexes.