Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter, Croft-on-Tees

A church of the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, restored in 1876 except for the chancel, which was restored between 1887 and 1900 by J P Pritchett the younger. The church is built of coursed rubble red sandstone and ashlar brown sandstone, with Westmorland slate and lead roofs.

The building comprises a three-bay aisled nave with a south-west tower and south porch, and a three-bay chancel with a 19th-century north vestry.

The Tower

The tower has two stages. The lower stage dates to the 12th and 13th centuries and is constructed of red sandstone, while the upper stage is 19th century and built of brown sandstone. A stepped diagonal buttress rises to the left. The ground floor contains a pointed-arched window of two five-cusped lights. Below a string course are set carved heads and a stone carved with "IHS", together with a sundial. Above the string course is a clock, and at each corner is a coat of arms formerly recorded as being on the porch—that to the left of Roland Place and that to the right of Richard Clervaux, two rival local landowners whose quarrels were settled by arbitration of Richard, Duke of Gloucester in 1478. The belfry openings are of two triple-cusped lights with pierced tracery, and a 19th-century battlemented parapet crowns the tower. Matching belfry openings appear to the east, north and west. On the west side of the lower stage is a trefoiled lancet window.

The Nave

The south porch dates to the 15th century but has an open entrance consisting of a double-chamfered round arch on corbel capitals and ashlar coping. Inside the porch are bench tables reusing medieval tombstones, and the inner doorway has a continuously moulded pointed arch with label.

The 13th-century south aisle has two 19th-century Y-tracery two-light windows with label flanking a 19th-century stepped buttress, with a 19th-century diagonal stepped buttress and ashlar coping to the right; a similar east window is present but with head stops to the label. Three straight-headed clerestorey windows, each of two round-arched triple-cusped lights, light the nave. A battlemented parapet runs along the south side.

The north side has two westernmost bays of the aisle dating to the 14th century and the easternmost bay to the 15th century. From west to east are a stepped buttress, a two-light window, a 19th-century stepped buttress, a chamfered continuously-moulded north door with label, a narrow two-light window, a 19th-century stepped buttress, and a renewed window of three triple-cusped ogee-headed lights with quatrefoil tracery above, followed by a stepped buttress. The aisle east window has two five-cusped lights forming Y-tracery. The clerestorey on the north side matches that of the south.

At the west end, some 12th-century masonry survives, and a 14th-century double-chamfered window of three trefoiled lights with reticulated tracery above is present. A blocked trefoiled chamfered lancet to the north aisle is also visible.

The Chancel

The chancel dates to the early 14th century. From left to right on the south side are a double-chamfered low-side window, a two-light Y-tracery window with head stops to the label, a pointed-arched continuously-hollow-moulded priest's door with large head stops to the label, and above it a window of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil above and head stops to the label. A stepped buttress with an elaborately carved canopied niche follows, then a 19th-century matching window and another stepped buttress with elaborately carved canopied niche.

The east window has five triple-cusped lights. This window was given a straight head when the chancel roof was lowered in the early 15th century. Flanking the window are stepped buttresses with canopied niches, elaborately carved, especially that to the south.

On the north side are a lean-to vestry and gabled organ chamber above a heating chamber. Further west are a 19th-century window matching the belfry openings, a blocked chamfered doorway with label, and a chamfered window.

The Interior

The 13th-century south arcade comprises three bays with double-chamfered pointed arches with labels, rising on octagonal columns with nailhead motif on the capitals and moulded bases. The western respond on the tower north wall is a colonette on a high base.

The 14th-century north arcade has three bays of four-centred double-chamfered arches with well-carved heads on label stops. The westernmost arch dies into the nave west wall, and the easternmost arch is hidden by the Milbanke pew. Corbels are set into the wall above.

The 13th-century chancel arch was rebuilt in 1729 and consists of two large round chamfered orders on short colonette responds with fillet and Early English capitals. A 19th-century arch leads to the organ chamber and vestry. A 15th-century hollow-moulded pointed arch to the tower has a head set in the wall to the north.

On the south side of the chancel is an early 14th-century triple sedilia with stepped seats and pointed-arched cusped canopies with stiff-leaf capitals to colonettes with ball flowers in the flanking hollows. Above is a richly carved frieze depicting men, beasts and foliage, with a hoodmould of animals resting on Atlantes supported on animal-head corbels. Further east is a piscina with a shafted cinquefoiled pointed arch with label stops and with heads alternating with foliage below the shelf.

On the north side of the chancel is an aumbry with above it a string carved with four four-leafed flowers flanked by a male and female head, and above it a trefoil window. At the east end of the south aisle is a blocked squint to the chancel and a chamfered piscina on the south side.

The easternmost two bays of the south aisle are separated from the body of the church by a 15th-century wooden screen of ogee-headed cusped lights, in paired divisions to the west and triple to the nave, thus forming a chapel. This chapel contains a large grey marble chest tomb of Richard Clervaux of Croft, died 1490. The tomb has a moulded lid with a Latin inscription around the edge, and the side panels bear his coat of arms, collared with the S-emblem of the House of Lancaster on the long sides and entwined by his motto on the ends. Along the south wall are side panels from another Clervaux tomb.

Set in the wall to the east of the south door is a Romano-British recessed panel carved with a male figure.

A 18th-century circular marble font stands on a 17th-century panelled square base.

At the east end of the north aisle is a late 17th-century large white marble chest tomb of the Milbanke family of Halnaby Hall. It is uninscribed but bears coats of arms in drapes and garlands, large diagonal corner volutes, and a moulded lid on which is set a helm. The tomb is separated from the south aisle by 17th-century railings with square bars diamond-set and spear finials, and a gate with fluted standards with crescent-and-spear finials.

Between the nave and south aisle stands the very large Milbanke pew, dating to the late 17th to early 18th century. It has projecting end wings and fluted columns above a fielded-panel dado carrying a dentilled cornice, all raised on four Tuscan columns to first-floor level. Access is gained by a large staircase with twisted balusters and dog-gates with swept tops and splat balusters.

On the west wall of the south aisle is a monument to Cornelia Milbanke, died 1795 while giving birth to twins, by T Banks RA. The monument has a long verse on a tablet between fluted brackets supporting a ledge with a semi-reclining female figure and the twins hovering above, beneath a pediment with antifixae and an apex coat of arms.

The chancel floor contains brasses to Elizabeth and David Neale, died 1743 and 1744 respectively. A twisted-baluster altar rail, black and white Frosterley limestone paving, and reredos panelling dating to around 1900 are present. A pedimented royal coat of arms of William and Mary, dated 1693, is mounted in the chancel. An iron hour-glass hangs above the pulpit.

On the north window sill of the Milbanke chapel is part of an early 9th-century Anglo-Saxon cross shaft with high quality carving of birds and beasts inhabiting vine scrolls. Near the north door is part of another cross shaft. At the west end of the Clervaux Chapel is an oak parish chest.