Church of St Peter (C of E) At Corner With Holwell Road
CHURCH OF ST PETER (C OF E) AT CORNER WITH HOLWELL ROAD, PIRTON ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1103220
- Date first listed:
- 27-May-1968
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Peter (C of E) At Corner With Holwell Road
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST PETER (C OF E) AT CORNER WITH HOLWELL ROAD, PIRTON ROAD
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-07-27
- Reference:
- IOE01/04792/14
- Rights:
- © Mr John Thomas. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1103220
- Date first listed:
- 27-May-1968
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Peter (C of E) At Corner With Holwell Road
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST PETER (C OF E) AT CORNER WITH HOLWELL ROAD, PIRTON ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST PETER (C OF E) AT CORNER WITH HOLWELL ROAD, PIRTON ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Hertfordshire
- District:
- North Hertfordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Holwell
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 16525 33306
Details
HOLWELL PIRTON ROAD TL 1633 (East side)
9/20 Church of St. Peter 27.5.68 (C of E) at corner with Holwell Road
GV II
Parish Church. Rebuilt 1877-9 by Ewan Christian (1814-95) for Rev Arthur Delme-Radcliffe the rector (last service in old church 30 December 1877: new church consecrated 8 May 1879 - see tablet in porch), SE vestry and baptistery in NW corner of nave 1907 (Kelly (1914)165). Some features of old church incorporated when rebuilt. Masonry walls of coursed brown and grey flint pebbles with limestone dressings. SE vestry roughcast. Steep red tile roofs. An irregular small church in C14 style with chancel, nave, S aisle, and SW tower the base forming the porch. Lean-to original N vestry (now organ chamber), and pitched roofed later SE vestry. Each element clearly articulated. Diagonal buttresses to E end of chancel and NW angle of nave. 2 buttresses to N side of nave. Pyramidal roof to 3-stages square tower. Gable parapets to other elements. Arched dripmoulds to openings inside and out terminate in neat bun-shaped circular stops. Scissor-braced rafter open timber roofs to nave and chancel, 2-bays arched braced roof to S aisle. Encaustic tiles in paving of chancel, and mosaic to baptistery. Chancel has a 3-lights E window with circular motif in the head and stained glass, 2 single-light S windows, and one to N of altar. Chancel arch of 2 chamfered orders springing from short corbelled shafts. Features from older church are: C14 string course across E wall with hollow chamfer and N end terminating in a longsnouted beast with closed wings and issuing from its mouth a wavy stem ornamented with ball flowers, human heads, and leaves: and a C15 corbel set over the S door, in the form of a wimpled female head. Oak organ case on N side with painted pipes, decorated with crocketed finials alternating with angels blowing trumpets. Interior of S vestry decorated with red stencilling on white ground. Arcaded marble reredos with vivid mosaic in cinquefoil panels. Shield with crossed keys of St. Peter over head of E window. Marble ciborium to N of altar. Tall nave has 2 bays S arcade of 2 chamfered orders on circular pier and corbelled imposts, 3 lights pointed W window with trefoil lights and tracery in head, large 3-lights Perp window lighting pulpit at E end of N wall, and single-light window to W end of N wall. Simple pine pews. Octagonal stone pulpit with mosaic inlay. Circular stone font on 4 marble shafts in low enclosure with carved wooden panelling and wrought iron gates. Pointed S door from porch. Features from older church are: C15 piscina in N wall by pulpit: and grave slab in floor by pulpit with brass to Robert Wodehouse d.1515 with memorial plate, chalice and wafer, and 2 wild men or 'wodehouses'. In the middle of the outside of the N wall of the nave a C15 pointed doorway with continuous moulding with jamb stops. Hollow chamfered inner order, and wave moulded outer. The small S aisle has a separate entrance from porch, single trefoil-light E window with stained glass fragment of a bishop, and in S wall 2 square headed windows with corbelled lintels inside, one of 2 and the other of 3 trefoil lights. The porch in the base of the tower has a wide 2-centred arched S entrance door, memorial tablet on W wall, painted commandment boards, and pointed lancet window on W. Tower has single lancet window on each side of middle stage, circular clock face on W face, string course below single trefoil-headed louvred bell-opening on each face, and windvane on apex of roof. (VCH Beds II (1908)287: RCHM (1911)126-7: Kelly (1914)165: Pevsner (1977)209).
Listing NGR: TL1652533306
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 163030
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Bedford, (1908)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 209
Kelly's Directory in Kelly's Directory, (1914), 165
Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 14-Jun-2026 at 11:17:25.
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