Church Heritage Record 619204

Nave and chancel, passage aisles, north eastern Lady Chapel, vestry and porches.

Nave 25.3m x 10.4m (83ft x 34ft) aisles 1.8m/6ft wide. Chancel 10.7m x 7.9m (35ft x 25 ft)

The church was built in 1910-12 and has been attributed to the local firm of Architects Barrowcliff and Allcock. There was some collaboration with another architect, William Weatherley of London whose name is on the church plans together with Barrowcliff as joint architect. The parish archive has details of some correspondence with Weatherley and the implication is that he may have been responsible for the original design rather than the execution.

A Lady Chapel was added to the north of the chancel in 1958 by architects Herbert Sone & Sawday. This featured on the original plans and was intended to be added at a later date.

The church was intended to be the best example in Loughborough of Anglo-Catholicism in terms of furnishings and fittings and clearly had a wealthy patron supporting this aim.

St Peter’s is a large solid building using a Free Gothic style.  The nave and chancel are under one continuous and steeply pitched roof. The nave has four wide bays and a further partial bay at the west end comprising entrance porches on either side.

Both north and south aisles lean against the nave and stop short of the chancel. In every bay (other than the easternmost on the south side) there are two short lancet windows spaced well apart sitting on a continuous string course. There is a clearstorey above the aisles with one cusped three-light window per bay under a pointed arch; a string course continues over each window as a hood mould. The bays are divided at aisle and clearstorey height with buttresses with two weatherings.

The western most bay (without openings) on each elevation sees an entrance porch projecting from the aisle roof. Each porch has a separate pitched roof and gable, slightly shouldered and surmounted with a cross. The porch doors are set back behind two series of dressed stone chamfered arches.

The east end of the south aisle has become the main entrance to the church. Here a full height transept projects from the chancel wall and forms the organ chamber. The south elevation of the chamber has a small two-light window with Y tracery and cusped lights.  Immediately to the west of the organ chamber roof there is a small open bell turret capped with a tiled gablet.

The single storey, flat roofed vestry wraps around the organ chamber joining the aisle for the last half of the easternmost bay and adjoining the chancel. The vestry here has a series of rectangular windows and another external door to the south. It has a parapet of sorts with widely spaced curved crenellation.  The chancel rising above it has a tall two light cusped window under a pointed arch.

To the north of the chancel is the Lady Chapel. Taller than the aisles this has its own pitched roof which dies into the chancel wall. Just peeking over the roof are two two-light cusped windows as on the south side. A buttress breaks through the roof line and demarcates the junction of the chancel and chapel. It has a tiled gablet as the bell turret on the opposite side.  The north side of the Chapel has two cusped three-light windows, stepped under a segmental arch. 

The east elevation is tall and plain. Two tall buttresses stand at either side of the large window which has seven lights, the central three taller, and a variety of tracery details. The east wall of the Lady Chapel has a small oval opening at height. 

The west elevation is equally simple and the window here has seven equal lights in a Y-tracery arrangement with elaborate tracery above.  There is a small lancet window at the west end of each of the aisles. 

Moving inside, the nave is light and spacious and vast in scale and proportion.  The arcade is of wide pointed arches on plain octagonal columns. The arcade joins the outer walls with pointed strainer arches creating narrow ambulatory passageways. The west wall has three blind archways providing a backdrop for the font and war memorial. The west window is plain glazed and suffuses the nave with sunlight.

The nave floor is wood block and the chairs are stored against the aisles. The nave and chancel roofs are timber panelled and barrel vaulted.

The chancel arch is tall and pointed and reaches to the full height of the building framing the impressive east window well. The chancel is raised on three steps which are integral with a low Hopton Wood stone wall.  The Lady Chapel and vestry on either side of the chancel are also raised to the same level. 

The chancel shows some of the richness intended for this building particularly the personalised sanctuary carpet, the riddle post and altar arrangement and ornately carved piscina and sedilia and Hopton Wood stone floor tiles. The latter has cusped openings and crocketted gables over.