Church of St Peter

Church of St Peter

This is a parish church built of rubble stone with ashlar tracery and slate roofs with coped gables, renewed in 2003. The building comprises a west tower, nave, shallow transepts and chancel with lean-to side projections.

The west tower is exceptionally thin with a battered base, corbelled parapet and restored battlements. A northwest stair tower projects from both the west and north faces. The bell-openings on the west, north and south sides have unusually good tracery: 15th-century moulded 2-light windows with cusped heads to the lights, a quatrefoil above and hoodmould. The windows are offset on the west and north by the stair tower. The east side has a plain rectangular opening and dripcourse over the nave roof. The west side has a small ground-floor 15th-century flat-headed 2-light window with cusped lights and no other openings. The tower is sheer without a base and slightly tapered.

The nave has a pointed chamfered south doorway with a plank door and iron strap hinges, and a renewed 15th-century flat-headed cusped small 2-light window. The north side has a blocked pointed chamfered door between two 2-light windows: the left one has simple renewed arched heads to the lights of 16th to 17th-century type, and the right one has renewed 15th-century cusped lights. All windows have rough stone voussoirs over them. The matching small transepts have low roofs and end-walls with renewed 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic pointed 3-light windows with panel tracery and hoodmoulds; the south transept window is larger than the north one. The chancel is lower and consists of two bays, with the roof carried down over the projecting west half of each side wall. The south side has two 15th-century 2-light flat-headed windows with cusped lights and rough stone voussoirs over them, while the north side (in the projecting part) has one. There are some rough voussoirs in the south wall to the left of the right window that may indicate a lost opening. The east end has a renewed 3-light Perpendicular-style 15th-century window matching those on the transepts.

Interior

The interior has whitewashed plastered walls and cambered-arched stone vaults to the tower and the two transepts, the tower vault containing a circular bell-hole. The tower has a stone winding stair, with the northwest corner curved to accommodate it. The tower arch has straight sides and a cambered head, with a plain boarded screen of 1893. The nave has a 19th-century roof of thin arch-braced collar-trusses with braces on timber corbels, and large red quarry tiles to the floor. Openings have cambered-headed reveals; the north side has a blocked door. The transepts are shallow with plain cambered openings following the line of the vaults. The north transept has a plain panelled oak screen, possibly of 1908, and a corbel on the left wall. The south transept has a 15th-century small pointed piscina.

A broad 15th-century chamfered pointed chancel arch of tooled stone has broach stops and three large corbels above. To each side is a flat-headed 15th-century 2-light window opening into the chancel with recessed chamfered uncusped pointed lights. Above and to the right of the left window is a moulded coved short shelf or bracket of uncertain date. There is no step to the chancel, which has an 1893 scissor-rafter roof and flagstone floor. A stone step to the sanctuary incorporates a 14th or 15th-century grave slab with an incised cross with foliate ends to the arms and step base. The chancel side recesses have broad cambered arches: the north one has a corbel set high in the angle to the chancel west wall and a corbel set lower than the arch springing to the east; the south recess has a corbel at a similar height to the east. The north wall has a shallow tall cambered-headed shallow recess to the right. The south wall has a 15th-century pointed chamfered piscina with a moulded base below the left window and fine double sedilia with two pointed chamfered arches and a simple column shaft between. The base is moulded and the cap is a plain block running back and carrying the arches. The chamfers are stopped with broach stops and a little raised diamond above the broaches. The seat is apparently a reused 14th-century grave slab with an incised cross, the head in a ring and with a long shaft.

Fittings

A 12th-century font has a square scalloped bowl on a round shaft with a moulded square base. The oak pulpit is of 1908, five-sided on an octagonal squat base with moulded plinth and cornice. The top has pointed tracery to large panels above pairs of quatrefoils on three sides and two narrow panels flanking. Pews of 1908 have panelled backs and panelled ends. The chancel stalls have traceried panelled fronts and fielded-panelled backs, probably of 1908. A mid-20th-century altar with Gothic panels is accompanied by 20th-century timber rails with turned balusters between panelled piers.

The east 3-light window contains stained glass with a small centre light showing Christ blessing, made by Celtic Studios in 1968.