Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

A church of limestone construction dating from the mid-13th to mid-14th centuries, restored in 1879. The building is constructed of regular coursed and squared coursed limestone with an ashlar spire, and features a lead and old plain tile roof. It comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, and west tower.

The chancel's south elevation displays a 2-window range of 2-light windows, the left with a square head. A south door between the windows has roll moulding. The steeply gabled roof features ashlar gable parapets and a 19th-century finial. A 3-light Decorated window with geometrical tracery lights the elevation, with 2-stage clasping buttresses at the corners. The north elevation consists of 2 bays with one 2-light Decorated window to the right, separated by a 2-stage buttress. The south elevation has 2 bays with a one-window range at lower level: a 3-light window with a 4-centred head and carved label stops to the right. A gabled porch to the left contains a double-chamfered outer arch and an inner doorway with a 4-centred head and hollow moulding. Single-light square-head windows face the return wall. The porch has a shallow gabled roof with plain ashlar parapet, finial, and central gargoyles in the return walls. Above the outer door is a tablet carved with cross keys and crown.

The nave's south clerestory at upper level displays a 3-window range of 2-light square-head windows beneath a shallow gabled roof with castellated parapet decorated with heads and rosettes. Two- and three-stage buttresses abut the junction of nave and chancel.

The south aisle extends across 3 bays with a 2-window range of 2- and 3-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred arch heads in the centre and left bays. A central north doorway and 19th-century vestry door occupy the right bay. Two-stage buttresses divide the bays. The aisle has a lean-to roof with part castellated ashlar parapets, and is lit by a 3-light Perpendicular square-head east window and two single-light square-head west windows.

The north nave clerestory matches the south with a 3-window range of similar character.

The west tower is enclosed on its north side by the aisle and comprises 3 stages with 2-stage angle buttresses. A tall west lancet in the lower stage is set between buttresses, with wall panels returning to the tower face with chamfer above the window. The upper stage has 2-light bell-chamber openings on each face, decorated with quatrefoils. A castellated parapet with corner gargoyles crowns the tower. A set-back octagonal spire rises above with 2 tiers of lucarnes displaying crocketted gablets.

The interior contains a 3-bay nave arcade to the north aisle of double-chamfered Perpendicular arcades with piers formed of 4 shafts and 4 hollows, one set with leaf capitals. The chancel arch is double-chamfered and the tower arch triple-chamfered. Some original roof timbers survive in the nave and north aisle with carved corbels; the chancel roof is 19th-century. The south wall of the chancel features a blank arcade forming a piscina and sedilia with 5 seats. An octagonal font with Jacobean cover having crocketted angles stands in the nave. A Perpendicular pulpit with panelled back is present, and a piscina in the north chapel includes a squint to the chancel above.

The church retains stained glass fragments dating from circa 1410-1440 in the north aisle's north-east window, depicting a bishop's head, and in two chancel windows. A 19th-century east window is probably by Ke Tipo.

Monuments include brass figures in the chancel floor of William Hewet, Rector, died 1426, and Roger Hewet, Chaplain, died 1487. An inscription around an earlier brass commemorates Thomas Bletsoe, died 1710. An inscribed tablet over the pulpit records Henry Lamb, died 1727.