St Peter’s takes its name from the church and first recorded in 1254 as ‘Borgha Sancti
Petri’ the ‘Borough of St Peter’.
St Peter’s parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Peter
the Apostle. The Normans built it in the early part of the 12th century, with additions
in the 14th century and the North-West perpendicular, battlement tower in the following
100 years. In 1723, there is a record of six bells in the tower. In 1799, Edward
Hasted described the church as being ‘a small structure which has something pleasing
in the appearance of it. It is built, as the rest of the churches are hereabouts,
of flints, covered with rough-cast, and the quoins, windows and doors cased with
ashlar stone, only the porch has more workmanship used about it; above are stone
battlements; the roof is covered with lead, and the portal or door way has a mitred
arch of wrought stone. It consists of a nave with a small isle on each side of it,
a large middle chancel, and a smaller one on the north side of it, part of which
is now made into a vestry’. The Gothic Revival architect, Joseph Clarke carried out
major restoration works between 1852 and 1859. In 1892, Mears and Stainbank added
two treble bells to complete the octave.
