Church of St Peter

Details

SOUTH HIENDLEY CHURCH LANE SE31SE (west side) Felkirk 4/61 Church of St. Peter 25.3.1968 GV I

Parish church. C13 and C15 but incorporating some Norman fabric (see Interior, below); altered and restored. Coursed squared sandstone, stone slate roofs. West tower, short nave with low north and south aisles, chancel with north aisle and vestry, and south chapel. Perpendicular tower of rectangular plan and 3 tall stages, with diagonal buttresses to ½-height chamfered plinth and dripbands on 2 levels, has 2-centred arched west doorway with studded plank door, 2 orders of hollow moulding, hoodmould with figured stops and apex shield (blank); large 2-centred arched west window (restored) of 4 cusped lights with Perpendicular tracery in the head; small inserted window to 2nd stage; 2-centred arched belfry windows with 2 stages of cusped lights, traceried heads, and hoodmoulds; large carved gargoyles at the corners and small ones in the centre; and restored embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners and in the centre of each side. Three-bay nave and south aisle; buttressed aisle has in 1st bay a low gabled porch with side buttresses and stone roof, 2-centred arched outer doorway with stop- chamfered surround, similar inner doorway with 2 orders of chamfer, stone side benches, and 4 massive and closely-spaced chamfered roof ribs; in each of the other bays a square-headed recessed 2-light window, and in the 2nd an inserted square-headed window of 3 pointed lights with hollow spandrels; at west end, a C13 pointed lancet, and above this the line of a formerly lower roof. Nave has 3 square-headed clerestory windows of 2 arched lights with hollow spandrels, a small wall sundial between the 2nd and 3rd on the south side. Buttressed two-bay south chapel has a square-headed doorway in the 1st bay, and square-headed windows of 3 round-headed lights with hollow spandrels, and east window of 3 arched lights. Chancel has large restored east window of 2 stages of round-headed lights. Aisle on north side is continuous to nave and chancel, making 4 bays, buttressed; 1st bay has blocked Tudor-arched doorway with moulded surround and hoodmould with figured stops; other bays have square-headed windows of 3 round-headed lights with hollow spandrels, the first 2 restored and the 3rd original, all with hoodmoulds. Gabled vestry at east end has a 2-centred arched window with Perpendicular tracery in the head. Interior: 3-bay nave arcade, the south of C13 date and lower, the north rebuilt in C15 except for west respond which matches the south arcade but is carried up to the higher level on a stilt, both arcades of octagonal columns and double-chamfered 2-centred arches, but the north with more elaborately moulded caps; tower arch incorporates Norman responds of paired shafts with set-back flanking shafts, with rope-work rings to the shafts and decorated scalloped capitals- with highly decorated friezes. these are of unequal height, the northern being both 2 inches taller and set 4 inches higher, although they are stylistically a pair (possibly surviving elements of chancel arch of earlier church); some re-used chevron-decorated Norman masonry in both walls of tower; some herringbone masonry on south side of south pier to chancel arch; nave and both aisles have roofs of moulded beams with block bosses, but south aisle has carved heads on 4 of the stone corbels; chancel has 2-bay south arcade on octagonal column which has a band of raised flowers on the capital and broach stops to the foot; but on the north side a single wide arch, (all these arches double-chamfered); shouldered doorway to north vestry, and above this the voussoirs of a 2- centred former archway. Font, within tower, a simple octagonal bowl on octagonal pedestal (restored to this position 1933). At west end of north aisle, a blocked lepers' window; to left of south door, a small semicircular stone with 3 concentric grooves (possibly relocated head of Norman window); at west end of south aisle, a relocated bench with C16 inlay; various wall monuments in tower, including square tablet with fluted border commemorating Sarah, wife of John Carr of York (d.1787) aged 75.

Listing NGR: SE3869012602

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

424970

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.