Description

LILLEY WEST STREET
TL 1126 (West side)

11/79 Church of St. Peter
27.5.68 (C of E)

GV II*

Parish church. Rebuilt 1870-72 by Thomas Jekyll for Rev A.C. Haviland
incorporating bells, font, piscina, monuments and tufa arch from earlier
church. Uncoursed knapped flint with limestone dressings. Tower parapet
chequered in squares of stone and tile-on-edge. Steep red tile roofs. A
tall church in the Early Decorated or Geometrical Style consisting of a
chancel with gabled organ chamber and vestry on N and gabled chapel over
Sowerby vault on S side, nave, and tower at SW angle of nave, the ground
floor forming the entrance porch entered from the E. The exterior has
gable parapets. N side has 4 lancet windows to nave and a pointed N door
near W end with hoodmould and carved stops and sexfoil windows to right.
Plank door with simple iron bands. Lower chancel has tiny lancet to
right of a pointed moulded narrow N door in an ashlar projection in the
angle with the projecting gabled organ-chamber and vestry. This has a
2-lights pointed plate-tracery window with alternating tile, flint, and
stone voussoirs to outer arch. Circular window with swirling tracery to
vestry's E side. Similar window with tinted glass in lowest stage of S
face of tower. W wall of nave has several dark red bricks in the walling
and a tall 5-lights pointed window with cusped circles in the head.
Diagonal corner buttress to nave. 3 stages to tower with projecting
turret at SE corner changing from square to octagonal before dying into
middle stage. Lancet window to middle stage, and 2-light pointed
bell-opening on each face with plate tracery, central shaft, and plain
circle in the head. Upper part of 2nd stage batters-in. Clock face on E
side of tower above main entrance. Pointed arched doorway with
nook-shafts, foliate caps, and steep pointed arch of 2 recessed orders
decorated with Romanesque interlaced circles with 'nail holes'. Circular
opening in plain stone tympanum. Single leaf oak plank door with twin
escutcheons and heavy bands. 3 lancets to S wall of nave and faceted
projection for chapel stair in angle with tall gabled projecting S
chapel. S gable has tall 3 lights pointed window with foiled circles in
the head, deep band of stone panelling with shields and swirling circle
motif alternately, between paired angle buttresses. Gable parapet coping
carved with stiff-leaf ornament. External E entrance to vault below S
chapel by round headed Romansque style doorway with nook-shafts, scallop
caps, plain tympanum, and plank door protected by a grid of interlaced
iron straps. Double-lancet window to S side of chancel projecting to E
of chapel, and paired corner buttresses to E end. Tall pointed 3-lights
E window with trefoil and sexfoil circles in the head. Alternate tile,
flint and stone voussoirs. Low down at E end foundation stone with large
central sunken circular cross and small crosses at each corner,
inscribed '2nd August 1870'. Interior of the tall porch in red brick,
English-bond, with 2 rows of stone blocks for future inscriptions. Lit
by round arched high S window with deep splay showing great thickness of
wall. Reset wall monuments to S, W, and E, and 2 heraldic black slabs on
floor. Finest on W wall to Thomas Docwra and Thomas his son d:1620.
White and grey veined marble with Corinthian columns and broken pediment
with obelisks. Many heraldic shields in colour. On S wall a neat
sarcophogus in white marble on grey ground to Rev William Wade d.1823.
On N wall a square panel in moulded alabaster frame to Daniel Houghton
d.1672. Floor slabs to Sir George Warburton d.1743, and to Sir
Benjamin Rawling d.1775. S doorway said to have C15 stones from old
church (RCHM (1911)142). Pointed doorway in 2 chamfered orders. Battened
door with twin escutcheons and heavy plain iron bands. Framed account of
rebuilding of church to left of door notes the last service held in the
old church Easter Day 1870: new church opened for services 29 June 1871:
tower completed 1872. Tall unaisled nave with scissor-braced open rafter
roof divided into 3 bays by cusped arch braced moulded tie-beam trusses.
The stencil decoration to the walling of the nave and chancel have been
painted over, as have the brick walls of the stair passage to the S
chapel rising from the SE corner of the nave. At W end of nave C15
octagonal clunch font with thick shaft, moulded corbel stage to plain
bowl with sunk cross on E face. Moulded projecting rim. Flat octagonal
wooden cover with moulded edge and fat turned finial with 3 dimensional
cross on top. Hatchment of Sowerby family over N door. Moulded rear
arches to lancet windows and segmental rear arches to doors. Both doors
have cross-bracing on inside. Radiators set in segmental-headed low
recesses. Pine pews with moulded ends (similar but in oak in chancel).
Octagonal oak pulpit on thick pedestal with cusped heads to linen-fold
panels, made from oak from St. John's College Chapel Cambridge (the
patrons of the living) which was being renovated in 1871. Stained glass
windows of saints c.1891 probably by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. W window by
them 1902. Tall Early English Style chancel arch with 3 conjoined shafts
and luxuriant flower and leaf caps. Multiple roll mouldings to arch.
Roof boarded under a similar scissor-braced rafter roof with polychrome
painted decoration with planted ribs and carved bosses at intersections,
applied gilded shields with engraved decoration to each side and painted
shields with badges associated with St. Peter. Floor with square pattern
of subtle shades of green glazed tiles. Similar coloured mosaic pavement
with sang-de-beouf accents and chevron boarders around altar. Organ on N
side set within the vestry's former round arched Norman chancel arch of
dark red tufa of 2 square orders with hollow chamfer to the simple
impost of the inner order. Similar stepped jambs terminate in a high
plinth offset in tufa over the red brick walling in English-bond
raising it above the height of the chancel pews. Small pointed doorway
to vestry on N wall has door from old church. Stained glass of 3-lights
E window dedicated 1882. Lowered shelf in sill with band of gilded
quatrefoils below and white marble cross built in. To S of altar a
sedilia niche has C15 reset piscina to E with octagonal bowl, shelf,
4-centred head and roll-moulded spandrels. The S chapel is open to the
chancel at a higher level with a single iron balustrade and a simpler
boarded ceiling with carved bosses and painted battens. The opening has
a wide EE arch with 3 shafts to jambs and luxuriant stiff-leaf caps with
birds. Chapel floored in subtle pink and brown glazed tiles. 3-light S
window c.1890 stained glass by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. Wall monument on
W wall in chaste white marble in Grecian Style to Mary Sowerby d.1812.
(RCHM (1911)142: VCH (1912): Kelly (1914)182: Pevsner (1977)235:
Roy Pinnock and E.F. Holmes The Church of St Peter, Lilley n.d. pamphlet
available at church).

Listing NGR: TL1183226370

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554859

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)