Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is an Anglican parish church dating back to the 14th century, with significant additions and modifications in the 15th century. It was restored in 1825 by Jesse Gane of Evercreech and further in 1843, followed by later 19th-century work. The church is primarily constructed of ashlar and coursed rubble, with freestone dressings, and slate and lead roofing.

The church’s design incorporates a three-stage west tower with set-back buttresses, pinnacles, and transomed two-light bell-chamber windows on each face. It features an embattled parapet with quatrefoil piercings, corner and intermediate pinnacles, a niche containing a defaced figure to the west, a four-light window with restored tracery, a doorway with a moulded four-centred head, paired ribbed doors, and ornamental spandrels. This tower is characteristic of the East Mendip style. The nave has a quatrefoil parapet and pinnacles, with clerestory windows of three lights. The north and south aisles are buttressed and also feature pinnacles, gargoyles, and three-light windows. The south aisle was rebuilt in 1843, removing the original doorway and porch. A small, neo-medieval vestry is situated to the south. The chancel has a solid parapet with a small urn on the east gable apex. It also includes a two-light and a three-light square-headed window to the south, each with a cusped field, and a slender two-stage ashlar buttress, along with an 18th-century wall monument. The north wall has two two-light windows with cusping and labels, and two ashlar buttresses. The east window displays reticulated tracery.

Inside, the church has plastered walls, wood block flooring, and encaustic tiles. The nave features a tie-beam roof with bosses, angel busts, a crest of the Duke of Somerset, and restored medieval colouring. The chancel has a 19th-century plastered ceiling with cornice and ribbing. A lofty, four-order moulded Perpendicular chancel arch is also present. The four-bay arcades to the north and south aisles have piers with a four-hollows section. The church’s fittings are largely late 19th century, including a reredos, sedilia, altar rails, choir stalls, a brass eagle lectern, pews, a stone pulpit, and a stone font. An organ was built in 1870. Galleries, constructed in 1825 and 1843, are located in the north and south aisles, and a further gallery is found under the tower, incorporating what appears to be reused medieval work. A 19th-century painting of the Transfiguration is displayed, along with three painted achievements stored in the north gallery. Other items include a pair of large brass candelabra, likely dating to the 18th century, a collection of 18th-century leather fire buckets, a 17th-century wall monument in the south aisle, and several other good 18th and early 19th-century wall monuments. Stained glass windows are found in the east and west windows. A small Jacobean chest with turned legs is also present, along with a pre-Reformation bell.