Church of St Peter

The Church of St Peter is a medieval parish church, largely dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, with some Norman fabric visible in the north wall of the nave and east wall of the porch. It consists of a nave with an integral chancel, a west bellcote, and a north porch. The church is constructed primarily of local, fine-grained pale grey and cream limestone, with some coarse red sandstone. Sandstone and conglomerate are used for the dressings, with some Victorian replacements in coarse, sandy yellow Bath limestone. Coursed rubble is the prevalent masonry style, with herringbone work in the north wall of the nave and the east wall of the porch, likely indicating Norman origins.

The nave and chancel are in a linear arrangement and of the same width. The north wall features a two-light Y-tracery window inserted in 1874, possibly the original east window; a stepped buttress of 1874; a single-light, trefoil-headed window from the 13th century; and a gabled porch, likely a late medieval rebuild with herringbone masonry. The porch features an elaborate trefoiled niche above the inner door. The west gable has a blocked doorway discovered during restoration, and a slit window above. A Victorian bellcote sits on the gable. The south wall has three two-light Perpendicular windows with flat-headed dripmoulds – the central one medieval, the others Victorian. A Norman-style priest’s door, possibly wholly Victorian, has a chevron frieze and ropemould. The south chancel window is rectangular-headed with trefoil tracery, probably from the early 20th century. The east gable has a Victorian three-light window with intersecting tracery and a dripmould, topped by a coped gable with a cross finial.

Inside, a likely early 16th century rood screen (thought to date from 1467) has been extensively restored and includes a 20th-century dado. The original medieval portion includes a central doorway with a four-centred head supported by slim shafts with moulded caps and bases, containing carvings of intersecting arches and trefoil heads within the spandrels. Three bays flank the doorway, each with two trefoil lights and pierced, cusped spandrels. A medieval font bowl sits on a Victorian base. An early medieval altar slab is set on a rebuilt base, and two medieval grave slabs are set in the chancel floor; one is purportedly of Urien of St. Pierre, with a lion’s head carving built into the south wall. Other interior features are Victorian, including pews with carved ends, chandeliers, and several 18th-century wall monuments dedicated to the Lewis family. The roof is an arch-braced collar beam structure, potentially dating from the 16th century.