Church Heritage Record 603010

6-bay aisled nave and 2-bay chancel under one roof, transeptal south organ chamber and north vestry, symmetrical porches off the second aisle bays from the west.

Chancel and nave estimated to be c 24m x 6m (78ft x 19ft).

Accrington has Saxon origins, and is unusual in that it was still held at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) by a Saxon Thegn, Leowine. There was a grange here of Kirkstall Abbey till the Reformation. The settlement developed slowly through the post-medieval period. In the 19th century Accrington rapidly expanded for the textile industry, as with most Lancashire towns. The parish church of St Peter was built to replace an earlier (dedicated in 1870) mission chapel in 1886-9, by Henry Ross of Accrington. The western 2 bays of the nave and aisles were partitioned off in the 1980s to create a narthex area with meeting rooms and a kitchen, the north porch contains toilets.

The architectural style chosen for this church is Geometrical of the mid 14th century.  The nave and chancel are under one steeply- pitched slate roof, the junction distinguished by a gabled bellcote with a fleche. The west front of the nave is flanked by clasping buttresses which project above the eaves to gablets. The west window is of 4 lights, consisting of two paired lights with quatrefoils in the heads and a large sexfoil above.  There is a string course under the sill and the hood-mould runs out into another above.  In the head of the gable is a small 3-light loft window with a hoodmould and a stepped up string course underneath the sill.  The steeply pointed gable has moulded copings and a cross finial.  The aisle west walls are pierced by 2-lights with simple pointed lights and a roundel in the head under hoodmoulds with block stops, again with moulded copings.

The clearstorey has shallow buttresses to alternate bays, with deeper buttresses to each bay of the aisles.  The aisles have alternate rectangular 2- and 3-light windows with unusual tracery, the clearstorey is pierced by 2-light pointed windows as in the aisle west end windows.  The nave and chancel are divided by plain buttresses which break through the eaves to gablets.  The second bay of each aisle has a low gabled porch with a moulded arch, gableted buttresses, and prominent gable coping rising to a cross.  The south porch, now the main access has an aedicule containing a statue of St Peter.

The transepts have separate gables, the north vestry having a chimney rising from the roof at the junction with the nave and rising above the eaves.  It has 2-lights in the north and east walls and a doorway approached by steps in the west.  The organ chamber does not project so far, it has a 3-light in the south wall and a 2-light in the east.

The east chancel wall is identical to the west nave wall except that the buttresses are articulated differently with stepped weatherings, the east window is of 5 lights, and there is no string course under the loft window.  The chancel side walls are pierced by a single pointed 2-light with cusped tracery, the hoodmould running out into a string course which continues around over the east window.

Moving inside, the porches lead into a large narthex taking up the two west bays of the church, with a ceiling at the height of the capitals.  A wooden screen with a row of glazed pointed lights separates this from the worship area. This rather dark space contains a kitchen in the south aisle and meeting rooms, cupboards, a creche etc.

Entering the worship space through double doors in this screen, the vista is practically unchanged from that seen in a postcard of 1924 held in the CCC files. The church is clearly well cared for.  The walls are bare sandstone, the floors carpeted in red and blue over quarry tiles, well-lit by the large east window with its luminous stained glass, the west window also gives light as the west end conversion keeps below this.  The three western bays of the nave beyond the panelled wood screen are full of chairs, and the oak choir stalls are still in place, but now behind a nave altar, the only obvious alteration.  This effectively shortens the worship area to the eastern four bays of the nave.  There is a Lady Chapel at the east end of the south aisle. 

The nave arcades have alternately cylindrical and octagonal columns with foliated caps, carrying double-chamfered arches in turn supporting a wagon roof with king posts and struts rising from an arch-braced tie-beam, the wall-posts supported by corbelled stone shafts. These rise from a moulded stringcourse under the clearstorey windows, which have deeply splayed reveals. The aisle windows have rere-arches with depressed-arch heads, most filled with stained glass.

There is a high chancel arch with continuous mouldings and caps marking the springing.  A painted rood is suspended from the ceiling, framed by the east window behind. A nave altar has been introduced, with a carpeted dais and new communion rails.  The chancel and sanctuary has a fine encaustic tile floor.  There is an aumbry with trefoil head in the north wall.