Church Of St Peter

Church of St Peter

Anglican parish church with origins in the 12th and 13th centuries, though largely 14th-century in date. The building was substantially restored in 1860, when the chancel was rebuilt and a north aisle chapel was added by architect James Mountford Allen.

The church is constructed of local stone rubble, with some cut and squared work, and features Ham stone dressings. The roofs are Welsh slate, pitched between coped gables, with stone slate base courses to the nave and sheet lead covering to the north aisle. The building follows a five-cell plan comprising a 2-bay chancel, 3-bay nave, south transept, 3-bay north aisle, and 2-bay north aisle chapel, with a south tower that incorporates a porch.

The chancel has a plinth and eaves course with angled corner buttresses. The east window is a 19th-century 3-light Geometric tracery window with a label moulding. The side windows are 2-light reticulated tracery, with one on the north side and two on the south; between these on the south side is a chamfered pointed-arched doorway with label. In the south-west angle with the transept stands a low octagonal extension with a steeply hipped lead sheet roof and cusped lancet windows, probably dating to the 19th century.

The north aisle chapel has a plinth and corner buttresses, with a late 15th-century style east window featuring a headstop label. The north wall contains one window matching those in the chancel side walls, possibly reused from there. The north aisle itself has a tall double plinth, bay buttresses, and pairs of offset buttresses at the north-west corner. Three 15th-century style 2-light windows sit in slightly hollowed recesses in the north wall, with one further window to the west.

The south transept has no plinth but features angled corner buttresses. It contains a 3-light 19th-century tracery window with label in the south gable and a 2-light window, probably 15th-century, in the east wall.

The nave is visible only at its west end, which has a plinth and a pair of offset corner buttresses. One window in the south wall matches those of the north aisle. In the west gable is a tall moulded pointed-arched doorway without label, above which sits a late 19th-century 3-light window in a hollowed recess under a headstop label.

The tower may have a 12th-century base, now rendered. It rises in 2 stages with a small angled south-east corner buttress. The south face contains a moulded pointed-arched doorway with headstop label and a small 2-light double-cusped lancet window above, with a stone sundial higher up. The west side has a single cusped lancet at low level and a slim lancet above. A string mould divides the second stage, which has a low plain parapet. Each face of the second stage displays a 2-light 15th-century style window with stone louvres.

The interior was not accessible for full inspection, but the chancel window has rere-arches, and the south transept features elaborately cusped rere-arches. The 15th-century chancel and transept arches are matched by a north arcade. An ogee-arched piscina rests on a head corbel. Fittings include a plain 17th-century pulpit and a probably 19th-century font. The north aisle contains several glazed tiles dating to around 1540.

Memorials include a defaced alabaster effigy of a lady of around 1475 and a brass to Nicholas Wadham, who died in 1508, showing an effigy in a shroud. A plaque commemorates Jane, Lady Wadham, who died in 1557. The south-west nave window contains engraved glass by Lawrence Whistler.

The first recorded vicar dates to 1221. An 1822 report describes a wooden spire on the tower, though this may be inaccurate; the same source incorrectly refers to two aisles.