St Peter's Church, by Steve Wallhead, 1979
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This sketch appeared on a Christmas card, sold in aid of parish church funds.
St Peter's is at the bottom of Church Lane, and is also reached from Nurses
Lane, from where this sketch was taken.
The following text is from Leicestershire and Rutland in The
Buildings of England by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, revised for the 2nd
edition by Elizabeth Williamson. Penguin Books 1984, ISBN 0 14 071018 3.
ST PETER. Of ironstone. Externally the general appearance is Perp, but there
is a good deal of earlier work. Unbuttressed C 13 tower with lancets below
and twin bell-openings of plate tracery with quatrefoil heads. Heavy broad
tower arch with semicircular responds and a double-chamfered arch. Perp top
stage, with two-light panel-tracery belfry windows and battlements, added no
doubt when the tall clerestory was built. Recessed spire with two tiers of
lucarnes in the cardinal directions. Chancel fabric also probably C 13, see
the nailhead on the chancel arch capitals and the triple sedilia (seats for
the priests on the S side of the chancel) with detached shafts. The transepts
are more difficult to date but are probably also C 13, see the string course
in the N transept, the blocked window in its W wall, and the keeled base to
the S arcade E respond. Fragments of a nailhead frieze in the S transept
seem reset. The arcade piers are also hard to date. They consist of a square
core set angle-wise and given four semicircular projections. The piers at
the W end of the transept have thin capitals charmingly decorated, on the N
side with heads, on the S side with curly clouds and demi-figures of angels
holding various objects (e.g. the sun and the moon). Double-chamfered arches,
hoodmoulds on good head stops. Their style seems to indicate a late C 14
date, but the S capital strikes one as likely to be later, and the N capital
carries an abacus of ballflower. Much Perp refenestration. Of a series of C
19 restorations between 1864 and 1875 (including one of the chancel by
Goddard & Son, 1867-8) the most important contribution was the
fine E window by W. Slater, 1864. Nave restored by R. H. Carpenter
in 1873. Unusual C 14 altar, triple-arched to match the sedilia.
STAINED GLASS. By A. Gibbs c. 1865 in the E and W windows.
MONUMENTS. In the S transept. Large effigy of a cross-legged knight; late C
13. - Sir Thomas Berkley and his wife who died in 1488. Incised slab on a
tomb-chest decorated with shields in pointed quatrefoils. - Sir Morys
Berkeley and his wife who died in 1521. Brasses; only hers remain (2ft
5½in.). - Base of a cross to the E of the porch.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL (former), in the churchyard N of the church. Founded in 1637
by Sir John Sedley. Oblong with mullioned windows and a four-centred door-head.
E of this two gabled cottages apparently also of C 17.
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