Chapel Of St Peter

The Chapel of St Peter dates to 1620, though it incorporates fabric from the 14th and 15th centuries. Constructed of limestone and ironstone ashlar, it originally served as a private chapel and burial place for the Crewe family, who were prominent figures, including a Speaker of the House of Commons and, later, a Bishop of Durham. A chapel existed on the site as early as the 13th century.

The symmetrical west front has three bays. The central doorway is topped with a four-centred arch and carved foliage in the spandrels. An inscription reads, "Holiness Becometh the Howse O Lord forever." The doorway is fitted with a 17th-century ribbed and studded plank door. Above the doorway is a re-used 14th-century window with reticulated tracery. Flanking the doorway are 17th-century mullioned windows, each with four arched lights and a square hood. A moulded parapet is ornamented with obelisks, and a plaque indicates the chapel was "Built by T.C.1620." A sundial, decorated with swags, cornucopiae, a cherub’s head, and garlands of fruit, is positioned above a buttress.

On the south side, a doorway features engaged Ionic columns, a bolection moulded entablature, and an open segmental pediment with the arms of the Crewe and Bray families in its spandrels. An eight-panelled, studded door leads inside. A re-used 15th-century window, with three lights, panel tracery, and a square hood, is nearby, as is a similar central window. The east wall has paired 17th-century windows with square hoods. The north wall is plain, and offset corner buttresses incorporate reused 14th and 15th-century material.

Inside, a two-bay central arcade has a quatrefoil pier and moulded arches. The flat-arched roof has a beam dated 1665. Fittings include a font with lugs on the bowl, a fragment of a 14th or 15th-century moulded column, and stained glass depicting a coat of arms in the east window of the north chapel. Other furnishings include early 18th-century box pews, a rectangular, panelled pulpit, and altar rails with twisted balusters. A marble altar table is inscribed as a gift from Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, in 1720.

The north chapel holds several Crewe family monuments, including the reclining alabaster effigy of Sir Thomas Crewe (died 1634) and his wife, attributed to Gerard Christmas; this monument is sheltered by a marble canopy with shields and obelisks. Other notable monuments include those for Temperance Brown (died 1634), signed by John and Mathias Christmas and dated 1635, and John Crewe (died 1609), with an oval tablet framed by laurel wreaths and a skull. Numerous other members of the Crewe family are commemorated by wall tablets, including John Crewe, First Baron of Steane (died 1679), Lord Thomas Crewe (died 1697), and Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham (died 1721), whose tablet is surmounted by two coronets and a mitre.