Parish Church of St Peter

Parish Church of St Peter

This church is said to have origins in the 6th or 7th century, but the present fabric dates from the early 14th century. The tower has been dated to 1631, although architectural details suggest it is earlier and possibly partly medieval. The entire church was remodelled in 1877, following the division of the parish in 1860 into Llanwenarth Citra and Llanwenarth Ultra.

Exterior

The church comprises a Decorated chancel, a taller 19th-century aisless nave, a south porch, and a west tower. It is constructed of local sandstone rubble with a stone slate roof featuring gable parapets and crucifix finials.

The chancel contains a fine 3-light ogee-reticulated east window and a similar 2-light window on the south side. An ogee-headed priests' doorway and an ogee-headed lancet are also present; the doorway retains its original iron hinges. The north side has a 2-light window in a plain surround.

The nave features cusped 2-light windows with carved headstops on the south side and simpler 2-light windows to the north, including one of Y-tracery type.

The gabled porch has a 14th-century 2-order arch of dressed sandstone with 19th-century iron gates. A tiny splayed window opening faces east. Inside the porch is bench seating and a wagon roof with panelled roll-moulded timber ribs. A cusped lancet sits to the west of the porch where the nave overlaps the square west tower.

The west tower appears to have been partly built up from a medieval west gable end. It is of three stages with a crenellated parapet, gargoyles, and a weathervane. The belfry openings are 2-light, triangular-headed to the south and north, and square-headed to the west. Below the bell-stage is a sundial on the south face and an offset lancet on the west face. There is no west door.

Interior

The interior largely dates from the 1877 remodelling but retains a 16th or 17th-century wagon roof to the nave with moulded ribs and rosette bosses, similar to that of the porch.

A 19th-century Decorated 2-order chancel arch with semi-octagonal jambs and good carved headstops divides the spaces. The chancel retains an early 14th-century ogee-headed single-drain piscina, now at low level following the raising of the sanctuary floor during the 1877 restoration. At the same time, the chancel was given a boarded roof, raised and cusped over the altar. A Romanesque font bowl sits on a later square base.

Victorian furnishings include a panelled oak reredos with a central mandorla and an open-traceried timber pulpit. The nave contains one late 18th-century monument by Walker of Bristol, and there are two dated stained-glass windows in the chancel (1867 and 1911).

The west tower is entered through a low, acutely pointed arch with split-stone voussoirs, similar in character to the belfry openings. On the inner side is a heavily moulded beam in 16th-century manner, possibly contemporary with the nave ceiling. Both this arch and the south door into the tower stairs feature broach stops—an archaic detail for 1631 and more likely to be 16th-century work. The wall containing the stairs door is not bonded into the west end wall, suggesting the tower was built up from an earlier medieval gable end. The tower stairs begin with a straight lower flight before becoming narrow and winding above.

This church is graded II* for its surviving medieval fabric and good sub-medieval work.