Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST PETER (1088158)

Parish church. C12, C15, rebuilt in 1867 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. C13 Gothic style, of ample and impressive proportions. Sandstone ashlar, Westmorland slate roofs, coped gables with cross finials to east, and coped ridges. Moulded plinth and cornice. West steeple, aisled nave with north and south porches, chancel, north vestry and south east chapel. West tower of four unequal stages divided by moulded bands. Angle buttresses with three set-offs. South east stair turret projection to the lower part. 3-light west window with cusped intersecting tracery. Pair of deeply set lancets above, another to the south and three more to the north, with a circular clock face above. On all four sides, tall bell openings of deeply moulded paired lights with reticulation units. Pair of colonnettes and moulded arch. Arched corbel table. Ashlar spire with broaches supporting canopied niches. Gabled and pinnacled lucarnes and rolls up the angles. The south aisle has a diagonal buttress to the south west, then a 3-light flat-arched window with cusped ogee lights. Re-set C15 porch, gabled and battlemented, with a plain moulded arched entrance. To the right are two flat-arched 2-light windows with ogee lights and a buttress between. Tiny square clerestory windows with cusping, arranged 1-2-2-2-1. Gabled south east chapel partly engaged by the aisle. To the west a circular window with quatrefoil. To the south three buttresses and two flat-arched 2-light windows with reticulation units. Between them a plainly moulded priests doorway, with hoodmould which continues as the sill of the windows. Plank door with decorative wrought iron hinges. 3-light east window of cusped lancets and ogees above. Principal east window of three trefoiled cusped lights and three encircled trefoils above. Three buttresses, and above the centre one, an elaborately carved animal rainwater head. The north side of the chancel has a flat arched 2-light window of cusped ogees, with genuine C14 tracery. The vestry has a pointed arched doorway to east and plank door with elaborate iron hinges. To the north a 2-light window with cusped ogees under a flat arch. The north aisle has two bays with 2-light flat arched windows of cusped ogee lights, divided by buttresses. In the third bay a gabled porch with pointed arched entrance of two plainly moulded orders. Double return flight of stone steps. To the right another similar window and a small almost round-arched window with re-used head. Clerestory as on south side. Interior: The north porch has an inner doorway with moulded arch on colonnettes and plank door with elaborate scrolled iron hinges. The C15 south porch has a stone roof on a single chamfered rib. Stone seats. Re-set in the walls is part of a foliated cross grave cover, a carved shaft and capital. C12 round-arched south doorway much renewed. Chevron in the arch and hoodmould. Headstops. Plank door with decorative ironwork. Four bay nave arcades, alternately octagonal and circular piers and responds. Crocket capitals and double chamfered pointed arches. The south west respond is partly medieval as are part of the third pier to the east and on the north side the west respond, and third pier to the east. Tall moulded tower arch dying into the imposts. Moulded chancel arch with band of flowers on naturalistic leaf capitals with shafts on moulded corbels below. Two bay chancel south arcade has an octagonal pier and capital, moulded arches and hoodmould on foliage stops. Plain arch to the north organ chamber and plain doorway with roll moulding to the vestry. The chancel south has a rich piscina and double sedilia with polished red and grey marble columns, and capitals. Double sub-cusped moulded arches drawn up to a slight ogee and with steep crocketed gables above. Encricled quatrefoils within. Small ogee arch to the piscina is medieval. Pointed barrel vaulted timber roofs to nave, chancel and chapel. The cusped principals of the nave on polygonal shafts and naturalistic leaf corbels. Tiled chancel with marble and alabaster dado and reredos. Huge monument in the chapel to William, First Earl of Devonshire, and Henry Cavendish +1625 and 1616. The two bodies under a low four-poster with black Ionic columns and black covering slab. Henry appears as a skeleton on a straw mat, William in his shroud with his face exposed. Extremely grand architecture above the two martial flanking figures, then arches with, on the left armour, and on the right purple, coronet, and sword hung up, and in the middle an angel holding the black inscription tablet and blowing a trumpet. The whole is surmounted by a big broken pediment. The monument has been attributed to Colt. C19 wooden gothic communion rails and choir stalls with poppy heads. Organ with coving beneath the pipes which are cantilevered out. Rich C19 pulpit of black and ruby marble. Semi-circular with intersecting arcading with leaf capitals. The base has seven detached shafts. Circular marble font, the base with four red granite colonnettes. The bowl has trefoiled arcading with leaf capitals and cable moulding. Plain open wooden benches to the nave. Good C19 stained glass in the west and two east windows; the chapel east window of 1882 by Hardman. C19 wooden lectern. Old font in the south aisle with panelled bowl and stem, the bowl with trefoiled arches. Possibly C16. Medieval piscina in the south aisle with plain chamfered arch. Hanging vase-like light fittings. Brass to John Beton +1570, Servant to Mary Queen of Scots.