Church Of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a parish church located in Runnington, Langford Budville, dating back to the 15th century for its nave and tower, with a chancel that was rebuilt and re-roofed around 1840. The church is constructed of red sandstone random rubble, with a squared and coursed tower featuring Ham stone dressings, slate roofs, and coped verges, except for the chancel, which has a slate-hung gable end on the nave.

The structure includes a west tower, a two-bay nave, a south porch, and a chancel. The tower is crenellated and consists of three stages, with diagonal buttresses on the second stage, a moulded plinth, and two-light bell-openings. There is a small lancet window below with a 19th-century hoodmould, and a two-light west window beneath a string course, with a west doorway that is now blocked. The pointed arch of the doorway features double roll moulding, and there is a two-stage stair turret in the north-east corner. The nave's windows are all trefoil-headed and mullioned, except for those in the chancel.

To the left of the single-storey gabled porch is a two-light window, with a chamfered arch opening leading to a four-centred arch inner doorway that has a 19th-century diagonally boarded door with decorative hinges. The east return of the porch displays a blue lias memorial stone to John Bindon, who died in 1794, with good lettering. There is a three-light window to the right, a stepped buttress, and two-light windows on the south front of the chancel, as well as a two-light east window with hood mould terminal faces. Another blue lias tablet on the north front is illegible but commemorates someone who died in 1808. The projecting rood stair turret has a lancet window and two two-light windows on the north front.

Inside, the church features rendered walls and exposed squared and coursed rubble in the tower. The chancel arch is a 19th-century four-centred chamfered design, and there is a chamfered tower arch. The rood stair turret has original stair openings with chamfered four-centred arches, and there is a crocketed niche for a statue in the north wall of the nave. The roofs are from the 19th century, with an open ribbed and painted wagon roof in the chancel, and a ceiling with bosses and a wall plate in the nave. The church also contains a Perpendicular font, 19th-century pine pews, a harmonium, and the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments on the chancel wall. Notably, Pevsner remarked that Runnington is significant as it illustrates that even the smallest churches had rood stairs in the Middle Ages.