"The church of ST. PETER consists of chancel 35 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in., north and south transeptal chapels each 23 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 6 in., clearstoried nave 54 ft. by 23 ft., north and south aisles 10 ft. 6 in. wide, south porch 13 ft. by 10 ft. 6 in., and west tower 12 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The toweris surmounted by a short spire. The width across nave and aisles is 49 ft. and across nave and transepts 75 ft. 6 in., the total internal length of the church being 109 ft. 6 in. There is a modern vestry on the north side of the chancel.
The tower is faced with ashlar, but elsewhere the walling is of rubble, plastered internally. The chancel has a stone-slated eaved roof, the other roofs being of low pitch and leaded, behind battlemented parapets. There was a general restoration of the fabric in 1894–5, when the roofs were renewed on the old lines and the floors relaid.
The church is mainly of 13th-century date, with additions and alterations in the 14th and 15th centuries, but has developed from an aisleless 12thcentury building the nave of which covered the same area as the present nave and of which the angles remain. To this building a south aisle was added c. 1200–10, the existing south arcade being of that period, and shortly after (c. 1225) a north aisle was built. The transepts, which cover the eastern bays, were perhaps contemporary with the aisles, or were added shortly after, but the rebuilding of the chancel on its present plan does not appear to have been finished till late in the century. The tower and porch are 14th-century additions, and in the 15th century the north transept was remodelled and its walls heightened, new windows were inserted in the aisles, the present clearstory (replacing an older one) erected, the nave, aisles and transepts newly roofed, and the battlemented parapets added.
Remains of medieval arrangements are plentiful. In the chancel are a triple sedile and a double piscina, and the piscinae of two altars in each transept remain; there is also a piscina belonging to a former chapel at the west end of the south aisle. Traces of a rood-loft are to be seen, but not of a staircase to the loft.
The chancel is divided externally into three unequal bays by buttresses, with pairs of buttresses at its eastern angles, the north wall, however, being covered at its east end by the vestry. The pointed east window is of three uncusped lights with intersecting mullions and hood-mould with head-stops. In the north wall is a single blocked lancet, but the other windows are grouped lancets of three and two lights. On the south side the easternmost window is of three lights placed high in the wall, and in the middle and west bays are tall two-light windows the sills of which are about 4 ft. above the ground. In the west bay of the north wall is a three-light window similar to that on the south side. In all these windows the hood-moulds follow the individual openings, but the character of the stops varies: all the chancel windows have rear arches with hoodmoulds. Externally a string, chamfered on the underside, follows the sill levels; the internal string is rounded on the upper edge, and on the north wall it occurs only at the west end. There is a continuous moulded doorway in the middle bay on the south side. In the east wall south of the altar is a moulded ogee-headed niche for the image of the patron saint. The beautiful 13th-century piscina and sedilia, though distinct in design, form approximately a single architectural composition. The two fluted bowls of the piscina are under trefoiled arches on jambshafts with moulded capitals and bases, the hood-mould stop over the dividing shaft consisting of a boldly carved eight-leaf flower. The triple sedilia have trefoiled rounded arches on detached shafts and shafted jambs, with moulded capitals and bases; the seats are on the same level and the hoods have foliated stops, the arches ranging with those of the piscina. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders springing from clustered responds with moulded capitals and water-holding bases on high plinths. Both bases and plinths have been mutilated for the rood-screen, of which there remains only a piece of wood on the north side of the arch, at the east end of the nave arcade.
The nave arcades are of four bays, that on the south side having semicircular arches of two cham fered orders, on cylindrical pillars and half-round responds, with plain octagonal capitals and circular water-holding bases on tall octagonal plinths. The later north arcade has pointed arches of two chamfered orders, on more slender cylindrical pillars and half-round responds, with circular moulded capitals and bases on high square plinths. In both arcades the arches have hood-moulds on each side, with large head-stops over the pillars on the south, and two very small stops only on the north. The easternmost arches open into the transepts, and the two eastern pillars receive the spring of transverse arches which divide the transepts from the aisles. These arches are of two chamfered orders, and spring on the wall side from corbels, that on the north carved, the other plain.
The transepts project 13 ft. beyond the aisles and are of two bays, each of which contained an altar, with pairs of buttresses at the angles, and are lighted by two windows in the east wall and one in the west and end walls. The south transept is without plinth or string, and retains most of its original architectural features; the windows are all grouped lancets like those in the chancel, that in the end wall being of three graded lights, the others of two lights. Internally the splayed jambs of the east windows are cut away at the bottom in order to admit the altar reredoses, and the two piscinae, one in the east and the other in the south wall, are trefoil-headed, but only one of the bowls remains. Below the end window is an empty square-headed chamfered tomb recess. The transept now contains the organ, its south end being used as a choir vestry.
All the windows of the north transept are of the 15th century, and the gable has a large curved crocketed finial similar to those at Langham and Oakham, flanked by large pinnacles. The end window is of five cinquefoiled lights with Perpendicular tracery and hood with flower-stops, the two east windows of four lights and that on the west of three, all different in design. The northern of the two east windows has a rounded head and vertical tracery; the others are pointed. The two piscinae are in the east wall, one with a low ogee-headed recess, and the other, at the south end, much larger, with cinquefoiled head; in each the bowl is fluted. There is a plain chamfered tomb recess in the end wall beneath the window, with low two-centred arch, containing a 13th-century coffin lid.
The north and south doorways are in the middle bay of the aisles; they are of the 13th century and of two chamfered orders, the north doorway nearly round-headed with quirked imposts and hood-mould chamfered on each edge. The south door has a pointed arch on moulded imposts. The 15th-century windows of the aisles are of three trefoiled lights with four-centred heads, without tracery, and there is an internal string, rounded on the upper edge, below sill level along the whole of the north and part of the south aisle. The aisle piscina, already alluded to, is about 4 ft. west of the south doorway; it has a pointed moulded recess with orifice at the back.
The 14th-century porch is without buttresses, and the later battlemented parapet takes the place of the original gable. The pointed doorway is of two chamfered orders, the inner on half-round filleted responds with moulded capitals and bases, the outer continuous.
The 15th-century clearstory windows are similar to those of the aisles, but have cinquefoiled cusping. There are four windows on the south side and three on the north, the easternmost bay on that side retaining a circular window belonging to the 13th-century clearstory, which was covered by the heightened roof of the reconstructed transept, into which it now opens.
The tower is of four stages marked by strings, with moulded plinth and pairs of buttresses at the angles to the top of the third stage. There is a vice in the south-west angle. Between the buttresses the face of each side of the tower is slightly recessed, and above the buttresses the angles of the bellchamber stage thus form broad pilasters. The two lower stages are blank on the north and south, except for a trefoiled loop in the upper part. The pointed west doorway is of two moulded orders enriched with ball-flower, on banded jambshafts with moulded capitals and bases, set within a tall moulded arch of three orders on twice-banded shafts, the whole forming a somewhat elaborate composition, both arches having deeply moulded hoods with finials and head-stops. The space between the two arches was restored some years before 1895, and is filled with plain masonry, but originally it appears to have been of carved stones set in a sort of diagonal pattern. Above the doorway, in the second stage, are three niches with ogee canopies and engaged jambshafts, and the third stage on three sides is occupied by blind arcading in three bays, with small crocketed ogee arches, two to each bay; on the east side is the line of the old high-pitched roof. The pointed bellchamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with curvilinear tracery and hood-moulds, and the tower finishes with an enriched cornice and high battlemented parapet the angles of which have massive octagonal pinnacles with crocketed terminations. The spire is very short in proportion to the height of the tower and has crocketed angles, and two tiers of gabled lights on its cardinal faces. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of two moulded orders, the inner order springing from clustered and filleted responds, the outer dying into the walls: the hood-mould has large headstops.
The font dates from 1895, and is in the style of the 14th century. The late 17th-century hexagonal oak pulpit has plain panelled sides and fluted angle pilasters: it was refixed on a stone base at the restoration, to which period also the fittings of the quire belong. The nave and aisles are seated with chairs.
There are considerable remains of coloured decoration on the end wall of the south transept in the form of masonry lines and red five-lobed flowers. Traces of similar decoration occur also over the south doorway and on the east wall of the north transept.
In the north transept, in addition to the slab within the recess, are two coped coffin lids with foliated crosses, another mutilated, and fragments of a fourth of plain character. There is also a slab with incised cross, probably of early 13th-century date, built into the north wall of the tower.
In the tracery of the two east windows of the north transept are some fragments of 15th-century glass and ten shields of arms, eight shields and two heads in the northernmost window and two shields and two imperfect figures in the other. In the same transept is an 18th-century communion table with curved legs, and in the floor a number of 17th and 18th century slabs, and two brass plates to members of the Mackworth family and others. The royal arms of the Hanoverian sovereigns (before 1801) are under the tower.
There is a ring of six bells cast by Taylor and Co. of Loughborough in 1895.
The plate consists of a paten of 1714–15, a cup of 1722–3, a flagon of 1721–2, and two plates of 1722–3.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms and burials 1563–1784, marriages 1563– 1754; (ii) baptisms and burials 1785–1812; (iii) marriages 1755–94; (iv) marriages 1792–1812.
South of the porch is the lower portion of the shaft of a churchyard cross, set in an octagonal socket stone."
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