Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church built in late Decorated to early Perpendicular Gothic style, following the architectural principles promoted by turn-of-the-century church architects such as G F Bodley. The building is constructed from rock-faced coursed grey-brown Shanrock stone from Ireland with Box Ground limestone dressings and Bangor green slates to the roofs.

The church comprises a nave, chancel with a slightly lower roof, a lean-to south aisle, and a prominent tower positioned on the south side of the chancel. A southeast vestry is attached to the tower. The west end, which remains unfinished, is walled up in red brick. The gables are coped with shoulders and finished with cross finials.

The tracery throughout is generally ogival in style. The south aisle has two-light windows and the nave north side has longer windows. A large southwest gabled porch projects from the aisle, featuring a pointed doorway with hoodmould and diagonal buttresses. The porch contains two small two-light windows on either side and is entered through double oak doors with wrought iron hinges. To the right of the porch are three windows with large two-step buttresses between them, and a pointed door stands at the extreme right in the angle to the tower.

The tower is a notable feature, with raised square angles rising sheer from a large plinth and topped with a clasping embattled parapet. Tall two-light pointed and louvred bell-openings appear on each side with pointed over-arches and a narrow band of blind arcading below two narrow loops in flush ashlar. The west bell-light is offset to the left by a sheer polygonal stair turret that rises to an ashlar cap above parapet level. The south face displays a three-light square-headed window, and the east face has a similar two-light window at a higher level.

The southeast vestry sits raised on a high basement due to the fall in ground and has a flat parapet. It features flat-headed mullion windows: two three-light windows to the south and one two-light window and door to the east above, with two-light and door openings in the basement level. The chancel sides also have parapets, with one pointed two-light window to the south and two to the north. A large and fine seven-light east window, flanked by buttresses, dominates the east end of the chancel. Four tall two-light windows line the nave north side, divided by two-step buttresses, with the easternmost window capped with a gable.

The interior is handsome and executed in the late Gothic manner. The walls are whitewashed plaster. A broad nave runs beneath a pointed boarded roof of twelve bays with transverse moulded ribs and gilded carved bosses. The chancel arch is two-chamfer with chamfers dying into the piers. The south arcade comprises four bays with similar chamfered detailing. The south aisle has a plain lean-to roof with straight braces running across from the arcade. The chancel roof matches the nave pattern in style, though it spans seven bays and features a more ornate wall-plate with more frequently placed gilded bosses. On the south side of the chancel is a tall pointed opening into the tower base, now filled by a large organ by Thomas S Jones of the Marlborough Organ Works, London.

The chancel steps comprise one rise from the nave and three steps to the altar, fronted with white tiles decorated with red fleurs-de-lys. The paving is laid in Forest of Dean stone and red tiles with some green and encaustic tiles. The south chancel wall displays an ornate piscina and shelf next to triple sedilia with traceried stone heads. A south door leads into the vestries.

The church contains fittings of fine quality. Woodwork by Clarke of Llandaff includes oak chancel stalls, two reading desks, a pulpit, doors, and a screen to the tower at the east end of the south aisle. The altar rails are fitted with decorative wrought iron standards. The east window is stained glass of circa 1930 by C C Powell of London, comprising seven lights depicting the Ascension with two prophets and four evangelists. A chancel north window of circa 1924 by R J Newbery bears the inscription "Until the day break". A timber reredos and east end panelling, dated 1947, was executed by E A Roiser of Cheltenham. An octagonal carved stone font by Clarke of Llandaff features a band of floral carving with shields and a cruciform shaft with marble columns in the angles.

Extensive south vestries are connected by a passage between the chancel and comprise two rooms: one beneath the tower with a panelled timber ceiling, and one to the east with a plaster flat ceiling. A York stone winding stair rises through the tower from the west vestry.