Church Of Saint Peter

Church of Saint Peter

This church dates from the 7th to 8th centuries (Later Anglo Saxon period), with Norman additions, 14th-century work, and a significant rebuilding in 1853 by G T Andrews in the Decorated style.

The building is constructed in gritstone, some of which is reused, and ashlar Magnesian limestone, with a timber porch and grey slate roofs. The church consists of a nave with a south aisle and south porch, a chancel, and a north-east vestry. A bell-cote is positioned at the west gable end of the nave, aligned east-west. The existing building shares its north wall with the Anglo-Saxon church and its east wall with the 14th-century church, though the full extent of these earlier structures remains unclear.

The south side of the chancel is built in coursed limestone, rebuilt in 1853 but incorporating reused medieval material including carved stones. It rests on a low plinth of earlier date that includes the footings of an entrance. A central pointed arch timber door has a hoodmould, flanked on each side by a two-light window with tracery and hoodmould. The east end is medieval in its lower part with 19th-century work above, featuring a diagonal buttress to the south-east and an angle buttress to the north-east. The east window is a three-light window with quatrefoil tracery. The north side of the chancel has an attached vestry from 1853 with a pent roof, containing a trefoil window to the east, a lancet window to the west, and a shouldered arch doorway to the north. A stone chimney stack rises from the south-west corner. The north chancel wall is windowless, built partly in coarse gritstone blocks with a visible discontinuity of construction in the upper part.

The north wall of the nave is mainly coursed gritstone, medieval or earlier in date, with two stepped buttresses. A blocked doorway towards the west end, with a foliate capital supporting a pointed arch, is 14th-century. A single lancet window of 1853 is positioned towards the east end. Two blocked windows of Pre-Conquest date survive, both small with semi-circular heads cut from three trapezoidal blocks. At the eastern end of the nave is the scar of an old roof line descending from a socket near the top of the north-eastern quoin. The west end of the nave is constructed of coursed gritstone, possibly rebuilt in its upper courses, with a stepped buttress between the nave and south aisle. Both the nave wall and the aisle wall feature a tall lancet window with trefoil tracery dating to 1853. At the apex is a bell-cote containing two bells, one medieval. A diagonal buttress is positioned at the south-west corner. The south wall of the south aisle was rebuilt in limestone in 1853 using earlier reused material, with a diagonal buttress at the south-east corner. It has three geometrically traceried windows and an open porch in stone and timber with a pitched roof, leading to a pointed arch doorway.

Interior features include a chancel with a doorway and two windows to the south. A lancet window and the three-light east window are attributed to Clayton and Bell. The roof trusses are scissor-braced with painted decoration on the underside of some trusses. On the north wall is a memorial plaque of 1638, most of whose surround is missing. The nave has modified queen strut roof trusses with struts angled outwards from a centre point to join an upper tie beam at purlin level, with additional braces. The nave is separated from the south aisle by a row of four columns supporting pointed arch openings. The column capitals have stencil decoration comprising stars, leaves, flowers, and fleurs de lis. The church contains wooden bench pews, a stone font at the west end, and a hexagonal lectern by the north wall adjacent to the chancel. A coloured glass screen divides the nave and chancel above the springing of the chancel arch, which has foliate decoration on the capitals. The west and north lancet windows of the nave and the eastern south aisle window contain stained glass by Clayton and Bell, with a further window by Kempe. A very large brass chandelier, commissioned and designed by J L Pearson and originally from Bishop Wilton Church, hangs in the nave. The north-side vestry, dating to 1853, has a number of carved stone fragments built into its north wall, including corbel heads and foliate crosses from coffin lids, and a fragment of Romanesque carving.

Outside the church at the south-west corner is a low marble tomb containing the remains of George Hudson, the "railway king" (1800–1871), among other members of his family.