Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Little Oakley

Parish church, now partly used as a studio. The building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, with the tower probably added in the 15th century. It was restored in 1867 by Slater and Carpenter. The structure is built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. The nave and aisle roofs are low-pitched and probably of lead, while other roofs are covered with Collyweston slates.

The plan comprises a west tower, an aisled nave with a south porch, a chancel, and a north-east vestry added in the 19th century.

The west tower is four stages high, with a plinth and clasping buttresses, a castellated parapet, and a pyramidal roof. The bell-openings are 2-light with tracery and a transom. The west face features double board doors in an arched opening with hood mould, a 2-light traceried depressed-arched window to the first stage, and two tiny stair lights. The south side has a chamfered loop light.

The nave and aisles have plain parapets. A clerestory of three square-headed windows with 2-light ogee-headed lights and hood moulds runs along the length. The south aisle features diagonal buttresses. The south porch has a parapet gable with a 2-order arched opening and hood mould enclosing an arched entrance with a 19th-century board door on decorative hinges. To its right is a 3-light rectangular window with arched lights, hood mould, and head stops. The west end of the south aisle has a similar 2-light window with ogee-headed lights. The east end of the south aisle contains a 3-light Decorated window with large head filled with flowing tracery. At the south-east angle of the nave parapet stands a louvred chimney turret.

The chancel's east end has three lancets and a round window with plate tracery trefoil above, with a band at cill level. The south side contains two lancets, with the western one above a 2-light "low-side" window, and a 2-light Perpendicular window. The north side of the chancel has one lancet. The north aisle has diagonal buttresses, with a 2-light square-headed window with arched lights, hood-mould, and head stops at its east end. The north side features a similar window, an arched entrance with hood-mould and head-stops, and a 19th-century board door on decorative hinges. The west end of the north aisle has a cusped lancet.

Interior

The nave has a three-bay arcade on quatrefoil piers with similar but not identical capitals. The arches are of two orders: the north-west arch has simple chamfering, while the others have sunk convex chamfers and hood moulds with heads. A tall chamfered tower arch rests on semi-cylindrical responds with polygonal capitals.

The roof, probably 19th-century, features arch bracing from head corbels to tie-beam and is traceried. The nave walls have been "scraped", but fragments of wall-painting survive above the chancel arch. The top of the rood stair is visible, though the doorway has been broken away. The north aisle retains an arched entrance to the newel stair with a carved head above.

The chancel's east end has shafted details with stiff-leaf capitals and brackets for statues either side. An arch-braced roof on angel corbels—all 19th-century—covers the chancel.

The interior contains two notable architectural monuments: one to William Montagu (died 1620) and another to an uninscribed member of the Montagu family (circa 1575). A 19th-century altar rail and pews occupy the chancel. A 19th-century pulpit with a "Feed my sheep" relief stands in the nave. The font has been removed. 20th-century timber and glass screens now divide the chancel, tower, and aisles from the nave.