Church of St. Peter

The Church of St. Peter is a building of mixed dates and materials. The nave, north porch, vestry, and tower are rendered and limewashed, while the chancel and south porch are constructed from red sandstone random rubble. All roofs are covered with stone slates. The church comprises a four-bay nave, chancel, west tower, north and south porches, and a north vestry.

The south wall of the nave features a two-light Decorated window with trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil in the head. Adjacent is a steeply gabled porch with a pointed arch containing a dripmould, a coped gable, and an apex cross, with small windows to the returns. A second two-light window, reminiscent of the first but a Victorian replacement in red sandstone, is followed by a three-light Perpendicular style window with a square head and dripmould. The east gable of the nave is coped and topped with a cross. The north wall has two two-light windows similar to those on the south side, separating a gabled vestry and a smaller gabled porch of comparable design.

The west tower is integrated with the nave, featuring a strongly battered base and two rendered stages above exposed rubble, leading up to a revealed rubble belfry. A small pointed east window illuminates the ringing chamber; rectangular, north and south, louvred openings provide light to the balance chamber. A cornice sits below the bell stage, which has a pointed opening on each face, a cornice parapet, and a stumpy, square-to-octagonal stone-built spire with a ball finial.

The chancel is in two bays, distinguished by heavy corner and central buttresses on the north wall. The south wall incorporates a lancet window to the left of a priest’s door, and a two-light window with cusped lights under a four-centred head to the right. The chancel roofline is lower than that of the nave, with a coped east gable and an apex cross. The east wall holds a three-light Perpendicular style window with cusped lights and a quatrefoil head. The north wall has a two-light window to the left and a lancet to the right, consistent with earlier windows.

A small section of herring-bone masonry in the north nave wall suggests possible 11th-century Saxon origins. Internally, the majority of the church is plastered and painted, with the exception of features incorporated during a Victorian restoration and the late Norman style chancel arch, also a restoration of 1861. The interior features wagon-vaulted plaster roofs with timber wall-plates. Furnishings largely date to the Victorian era, with the exception of an early 18th-century Communion Rail with turned balusters, a tub font from the Chapel of St. Michael, and Royal Arms dated 1711. Several good late 18th and early 19th-century memorials are present, including one to the Griffins of Newton Court in the chancel. The church is said to contain four bells dated approximately 1420, 1674, 1678, and 1876. A window by Seddon was added in 1862.