"The church of ST. PETER stands at the western extremity of the village, and consists of chancel 31 ft. by 16 ft. 3 in. with north aisle or chapel 22 ft. by 11 ft. 9 in., clearstoried nave of two bays 36 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. 6 in., north and south aisles 10 ft. 6 in. wide, south porch, and west tower 10 ft. 3 in. square, all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a lofty spire. The chapel is a continuation eastward of the north aisle of the nave and covers the chancel nearly its full length; it is now used as a vestry and organ-chamber.
The building was restored in 1843–4, and on a more extensive scale in 1875, when the roofs were entirely renewed and blue slates substituted for lead, the greater part of the north wall of the north aisle rebuilt, a west gallery removed, and the chancel renovated. There was a further restoration in 1896.
The chancel and tower are faced with ashlar, but elsewhere the building is of rubble, and all the walls are plastered internally. The chancel and nave have plain parapets, continued in each case along the low-pitched east gable, but the roofs of the aisles and porch are eaved. The porch is covered with stone slates.
No part of the church as now existing is older than c. 1210, to which period the chancel arch and the dividing arcade between the chancel and former north chapel belong, but the plan has probably developed in the normal way from an aisleless 12thcentury building, the nave of which covered the same area as at present. Little later in date come the nave arcades, and the south doorway and porch are also of the 13th century, the plan of the building, save for the tower, assuming its present form probably before the middle of the century, though a window in the south aisle is as late as c. 1280. In 1364 the church was said to be ruinous and a papal indulgence was granted to those who should assist in its repair. With the money thus obtained the tower was probably erected towards the end of the 14th century, and the clearstory very soon after. The east and south walls of the chancel appear to have been wholly rebuilt in the 15th century.
The arcade between the chancel and chapel has two semicircular arches of two chamfered orders, springing from responds which below the moulded imposts are simple continuations of the arch, and from a dividing cylindrical pillar with circular moulded capital and fully developed water-holding base. The arches are without hood-moulds and the responds have chamfered plinths. The pointed chancel arch is of two chamfered orders towards the nave, and springs from moulded imposts of the same character as those of the arcade. The chancel retains no other 13th-century features. It is divided externally into two bays and has pairs of buttresses at the eastern angles, moulded plinth, and string at sill level. The four-centred east window is of five cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery, and stilted hood-mould with head-stops. In the south wall are two pointed windows of three lights with similar tracery, and a continuous moulded priest's doorway. The piscina recess has a pointed cinquefoiled head, but the bowl is gone; adjoining it, below the easternmost window, are two sedilia, with uncusped pointed arches within a rectangular frame. There is no screen, but the lower part of a late 15th-century rood stair, probably contemporary with the rebuilding of the chancel, remains on the north side of the chancel arch, with four-centred doorway in the north aisle. The stair is crossed by a squint directed to the chapel altar, the opening of which, on the nave side, is a quatrefoil within a square frame. The principals of the modern roof of the chancel are supported by six carved oak figures from the old roof, three of which are angels with musical instruments, and the others St. Michael, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Peter.
The nave arcades have wide pointed arches of two chamfered orders springing from half-round responds and dividing cylindrical pillars. The south arcade is slightly the older, the pillar having a circular stiff-stalk capital with rather sparse foliage, the necking of which, towards the aisle, is raised and a small head inserted, perhaps to allow for a screen. In the north arcade the pillar has a circular moulded capital, and the capitals of all four responds are also moulded, but differ in section on the north and south. The bases are all water-holding. Both arcades are much restored, and the hood-moulds are new. At the west end of each arcade is a length of wall of about 4 ft. 6 in.
The north chapel has a good 14th-century pointed east window of three lights with reticulated tracery, and in the usual position a round-headed piscina with fluted bowl. The north window, and that of the nave aisle further west, are modern.
The south aisle is without buttresses, and has a pointed three-light window east of the porch with early geometrical tracery consisting of a quatrefoil and two cinquefoiled circles, c. 1280. The three-light west window is a mid-15th-century insertion, and at the east end is a rectangular recess high up in the blank wall. The piscina of the aisle altar has a rectangular trough below a rather flat ogee arch. The south doorway is of early 13th-century date, with semicircular arch of three orders, the two outer chamfered, on angle shafts with moulded capitals and bases, but the shafts of the middle order have gone. The rounded inner order is continued down the jambs below moulded imposts. The outer doorway of the porch is rather later in date, with semicircular arch of three moulded orders and hood-mould, the innermost order continuous and the others originally on angle shafts, the capitals of which alone remain. The porch has a plain coped gable and short buttresses.
No ancient features remain in the north aisle with the exception of a blocked pointed doorway, above which, however, the walling is modern. The clearstory has three pointed windows on each side, of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil of irregular shape in the head.
The tower is of three stages marked by strings, with moulded plinth and wide clasping buttresses. There is a vice in the south-west angle. The lofty bell-chamber stage has a pair of tall two-light pointed transomed windows in each face, with a band of sunk quatrefoils above. The west window in the bottom stage is of two lights with quatrefoil in the head and hood-mould with grotesque stops, and in the middle stage on each side is a sunk quatrefoil window. There is no corbel table, the spire rising from a simply moulded cornice: it has very low broaches and ribbed angles. The broach ridges are also ribbed, and the spire has gabled two-light openings on the cardinal sides, and single lights above on the alternate faces; near the top it is pierced with small quatrefoils. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of two chamfered orders, the outer continuous, the inner springing from half-round responds with octagonal moulded capitals and high circular moulded bases on octagonal chamfered plinths.
The font is ancient, and has a plain octagonal bowl on a small cylindrical banded stem and four octagonal legs with moulded capitals and bases. The pulpit is modern: it takes the place of an early 17th-century pulpit which was removed to Harringworth (Northants) in 1875. Three round-headed panels, with the date 1605 and initials of Richard Johnson, rector (1602–38), are worked up into a stand or receptacle for two early printed books, which formerly were chained to the desk.
On the north wall of the chancel, near the east end, is a small brass inscription from the tomb of Rowland Digby, rector, who died in 1546, and there is also a bench-end with two carved panels bearing respectively the Digby fleur-de-lys and the inscription 'Rowlandus Digbi Rector de Ba.'
The beautiful Renaissance freestone monument to Rowland Durant (d. 1588) is now on the north wall of the north aisle, opposite the entrance: its chief motive is a large coat-of-arms with helm and mantling, and the entablature is supported by Ionic pilasters. There is a floor slab to Edward Fawkner, gent., 1696, in the north aisle.
At the east end of the south aisle is a shrine erected to the memory of fourteen men of the parish who fell in the war of 1914–19.
During the restoration of 1875 traces of scroll wall painting were found under the colour wash on the north side of the chancel.
There are five bells, the treble, second and tenor recast by Taylor of Loughborough in 1916; the third by Francis Watts of Leicester, 1595; and the fourth an undated alphabet bell probably by Newcombe of Leicester.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1569–70, kept in the original leather case, and a breadholder of 1842–3.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all entries 1603–1700; (ii) baptisms and burials 1701– 1812, marriages 1701–54; (iii) marriages 1755–1812."
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