"St Mary and St Peter’s Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter in Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 2 miles (3 km) south-east from Grantham, and at the eastern edge of the Vale of Belvoir in South Kesteven.
St Mary and St Peter’s is noted in particular for its association with and memorials to the Harlaxton Manor Gregory and de Ligne families, c.1410 effigies of Sir Richard Rickhill and his wife, Elizabeth, and the church's 19th-century restoration by John Oldrid Scott
The church is within the Harlaxton conservation area. It is in the ecclesiastical parish of Harlaxton, and is part of the Harlaxton Group of Parishes in the Deanery of Loveden and the Diocese of Lincoln. Other churches in the same group are St Andrew’s, Denton; All Saints’, Stroxton; St James’, Woolsthorpe; and St Catherine’s, Wyville.
St Mary and St Peter’s parish register dates from 1558, and includes that of Wyville with Hungerton up to 1813.
No church or priest for Harlaxton is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book. According to English Heritage, between 1174 and 1185 land at Harlaxton to build a church was provided by William the Conqueror’s grand daughter Matilda. By 1535 Harlaxton held one of the nine chantries within the deanery of Grantham. The present church structure dates, in parts, from the late 12th century, with later additions and alterations in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The church spire was restored in 1885, and the interior in 1856-58 at which time the south porch was rebuilt. The interior was again restored in 1890-91 by John Oldrid Scott at a cost of £1,200—Pevsner believes this later Scott work "grossly over-restored". Cox gives a further restoration date of 1898. Before the 1856 restoration an "elegant" Gothic carved oak rood screen between the chancel and nave was noted. In 1925 a new steel bell frame was added by Loughborough Bellfoundry to the tower belfry stage, with its five 5 bells retuned and rehung. St Mary and St Peter’s bells today number six, provided by bellfounders: Nottingham Foundry (c.1500), Henry Oldfield (c.1620), Hugh Watts (1635), two by Robert Taylor (1820), and John Taylor & Co (1946). A hung sanctus bell (.c.1699), acts as a 'call to prayer' and is not part of the peal. At some point, and by a person unknown, one and a half acres of land (called a 'close'), was endowed to the rector for the ringing of the sanctus bell at 4am and 8pm each day. This land became known as 'Day Bell Close'.
The earliest record of a priest at Harlaxton is that of Gilbert de Segrave in 1291; the earliest rector at the time of the Church of England’s Secession and break with Rome being Richard Reynes in 1551. By 1795 tithes to the parish—typically payment of one-tenth of income—had been replaced by a cornrent, whereby payments were made in corn rather than money. Land for this purpose comprised 63 acres (0.3 km2) of glebe—land used to support a parish priest—with net income obtained from such, £760. In 1855 the parish incumbent was Rev Henry Mirehouse MA, who held a living and rectory of a yearly value of £550 and about 200 acres (0.8 km2) of glebe land under the patronage of the prebendary of South Grantham. By 1885 the living and rectory—which had attained a gross yearly value of £586 and included a residence in the gift of Queen's College, Oxford—had been held since 1867 by Rev Edward Garfit MA of St John's College, Cambridge, who was also a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. By 1933 the rectory had united with Wyville with Hungerton, with a joint net yearly value £547, including glebe land and residence—these in the alternate gift of Queen's College, Oxford, and T. S. Pearson Gregory DL JP—and had been held since 1920 by Rev Alban Sackett Hope MA of Queen's College, Oxford.
St Mary and St Peter’s received a National Heritage Grade I building listing in 1966.
An archeological Watching Brief was held in 2005 during trench groundwork at the south, west and north of the church to establish pipes for a new heating system. During the work evidence of earlier building was not discovered but a stone fragment was uncovered together with a number of small bones and a skull.
St Mary and St Peter's received funding for repairs to epitaphs from The Society of Antiquaries of London under its William and Jane Morris Fund."
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