Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

The Church of St Peter at Wintringham is a Grade I listed building of major historical importance, combining work from several centuries. The earliest element is a 12th-century chancel, which was retained when the main body of the church was rebuilt in the early 14th century. The east end was substantially rebuilt in the 15th century, and the tower dates from the late 14th century, though it was repaired in 1818. The church was re-roofed and restored comprehensively in 1887.

The building is constructed of dressed sandstone with a slate roof. The plan comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with north and south aisles of equal size, and a chancel.

The tower is the most architecturally elaborate feature. It stands in four stages on a double-chamfered plinth, with north- and south-west diagonal buttresses, a north-east angle buttress, and a south-east vice with a shouldered doorway in its first stage. A chamfered string course marks each stage. The west window is a stilted arch of three Perpendicular lights in a triple-chamfered opening with continuous hoodmould. Slit windows pierce the north and west sides of the third stage. The fourth stage contains paired louvred bell openings with Decorated tracery in double-chamfered openings beneath pointed hoodmoulds on shield stops. The most striking feature is the corbel table, enriched with masks, grotesques, fleurons, and heraldic devices, supporting an embattled parapet decorated with wavy tracery and armorial bearings. The parapet is pierced by quatrefoils and has pinnacles and angle water spouts. A recessed octagonal spire rises from the parapet.

The nave aisles are symmetrical. The west windows of both aisles are square-headed, of two lights with Perpendicular tracery in double-chamfered openings beneath continuous coved hoodmoulds. Both aisles stand on double-chamfered plinths. The south aisle has a pointed south door on original strap hinges, beneath a hoodmould. Three south-facing windows are square-headed, of two lights with Perpendicular tracery in double-chamfered openings beneath continuous hoodmoulds. A chamfered eaves band with carved water spouts runs below a plain parapet with carved heads in place of pinnacles. The north aisle precisely repeats the south aisle in all its details.

The chancel stands on a sloping plinth with pilaster buttresses. On the south side is a narrow round-headed priests' door beneath a leaf-stopped hoodmould, and a low side window of paired trefoil-headed lights beneath a square hoodmould. Two 2-light Perpendicular windows in double-chamfered openings beneath head-stopped hoodmoulds occupy the east wall. The north side has one Perpendicular window only, beneath a hoodmould on fleuron stops, one incised and the other in low relief. The east end is constructed on a double-chamfered plinth with diagonal buttresses and coped gables. It contains a restored 3-light Perpendicular window with chamfered sill band and hoodmould. Both nave and chancel have gable crosses. The chancel parapet is embattled but defaced. East windows throughout are square-headed Perpendicular.

Interior

Inside, the tower arch is pointed and double-chamfered, dying into the sides beneath a stopped hoodmould. The nave arcades to north and south are of continuous moulded double-chamfered pointed arches on piers with tall bases; the western responds have large broach spurs. The chancel arch is pointed and double-chamfered. A blocked round-arched opening in the chancel north wall has a chamfer-stopped surround beneath a hoodmould. A double aumbry in chamfered openings occupies the south wall.

The east ends of both aisles are closed off by 15th-century embattled screens of open traceried panels. The south chapel thus formed contains a trefoil-headed piscina in its south wall and a carved niche with ribbed and crocketed canopy on the north side.

An arcaded screen inside the tower is dated 1723. The nave retains 17th-century poppyhead pewing, and both the lectern and pulpit incorporate 17th-century panelling, some carved. An octagonal pulpit tester has pendant finials. A 17th-century baluster poorbox is carved with flowers and foliage. The Norman tub font has a tall octagonal cover painted with winged cherubs and dated 1736.

Other fixtures include a 1723 hatchment in the tower and two painted panels, one recording the tower's 1818 repair and the second a bellringers' admonishment dated 1723 reading: "I pray you Gentlemen beware And when you ring ye Bells take care; For he that rings and breaks a stay, Must pay sixpence without delay; And if you ring in Spurs or Matt, You must likewise pay sixpence for that. Michael Gill Clarke. 1723." Paternoster and Commandment boards are mounted in the north aisle, and a painted text from Genesis appears above the chancel arch.

Original strap hinges remain on both doors, and two 19th-century brass chandeliers are hung in the church. Stained glass survives in the form of a series of 15th-century saints depicted in the tracery lights of all nave and aisle windows.

The only monument is a painted memorial to John Lister (died 1651) on the chancel north respond, composed as an acrostic.

Roofs

The nave roof is dated 1887 on the south wall plate, though the north wall plate, dated 1685, has been retained. The nave roof employs arch-braced collar beams with collar and side purlins, all wind-braced. Subsidiary rafters have straight braced collars. Some roof corbels are carved as heads or fleurons. The chancel roof is probably of early 20th-century date and employs a hammer-beam structure with moulded ribs and traceried spandrels.