Description

LEIRE DUNTON LANE (North Side)
SP59 SW
3/33 Church of St. Peter
11.1.55

GV II*
Parish church. Only the tower survives of a medieval building, and is late
C13. The rest is of 1867-8 by W. Bassett Smith of London. Tower is of
squared limestone, the rest coursed and squared granite with limestone
dressings and plain tile roofs. West tower, nave and north aisle, chancel.
Massy west tower of four unequal stages on plinth, with clasping buttresses to
lower stages, which are angled above and terminate in gargoyles at the
embattled parapet. 2-light west window and paired lights to bell chamber, all
the detail coarse and heavy. Recessed spire with lucarnes. Clock and sun
dial on tower. South doorway in steep coped gabled porch with inner doorway
in a late C13 style with hoodmould, keeled moulding and hollow chamfer to
archway, of banded gold and grey stone. Windows are in a Decorated style,
each of 2-lights, with hoodmould. Moulded string course and buttresses.
Priests door in chancel, its hoodmould springing from the string course. East
window is of 3-lights in the Decorated style. Small vernacular gothic vestry
to north, with coped gable with kneelers and a depressed foiled window.
Unprojecting string course to vestry and north aisle, which is buttressed and
has segmentally arched windows of 2-lights. Interior: west tower arch of
late C13: triple chamfered shallow archway springs high up from double
chamfered responds. North nave arcade of 4 bays, banded grey and gold
ashlar: double chamfered arches with chamfer stops have small foliate bands
in capitals and spring from shafts alternately cylindrical and octagonal.
Responds are semi-octagonal and keeled. Roof partially ceiled above cambered
braced tie-beam. Chancel arch has outer slim cylindrical shafts but is
largely carried on small corbel-piers with heavy foliage capitals: it is also
of banded ashlar. All fittings are contemporary with the rebuilding including
encaustic floor tiles, pews and stalls and altar rails. Glass: east window
is of 1844 removed from the earlier church: emblematic motifs, circles
quatrefoils etc. on a filigree background. Figures of St. Peter, James and
John in north and south chancel windows, c1870, gaudily coloured. Two windows
in north aisle are narrative scenes, and one is dated 1889. The other is
attributed to Heaton, Butler and Bayne: as the two windows form a stylistic
pair presumably they were both the work of this firm. West tower window of
1882, the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World, heavily detailed. Font:
c1850. Octagonal and heavily carved with reliefs of the emblems of the
evangelists etc.

Listing NGR: SP5257090025

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539035

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)