St Peter's, Northampton

St Peter's Church, Northampton
St Peter's Church from the southeast
St Peter's Church, Northampton Location in Northamptonshire
Coordinates: 52°14′11″N 0°54′12″W / 52.2365°N 0.9034°W / 52.2365; -0.9034
OS grid reference	SP 749 603
Location	Marefair, Northampton
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
History
Dedication	Saint Peter
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	19 January 1952
Architectural type	Church
Style	Norman, Neo-Norman
Groundbreaking	1130–40
Completed	1850s
Specifications
Materials	Ironstone, oolithic limestone

St Peter's Church is a redundant Anglican church in Marefair, Northampton, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is considered to be "the most outstanding Norman church in the county" (Northamptonshire), and "its capital sculpture is one of the highlights of the Romanesque in England".Alec Clifton-Taylor includes the church in his list of 'best' English parish churches.

The church stands on a site between a former Anglo-Saxon palace and Northampton Castle. Two previous churches have been on the site, one built in wood, the other in stone. The present church was probably built between 1130 and 1140 by Simon de Senlis II. The west tower had fallen by 1607 and was rebuilt later in that century, moving it 12 feet (3.7 m) to the east. In the 1850s the church was restored by George Gilbert Scott. This included re-roofing the church, rebuilding the east end and lowering the floor of the nave by 1 foot (0.3 m). Scott also reconstructed the clerestory but left the Norman carvings untouched. In 1878–79 his son, John Oldrid Scott carried out a scheme of decoration using stencils on the interior of the east wall.

St Peter's is constructed in reddish ironstone and yellowish oolithic limestone. The two colours of stone are in some parts of the church used alternately for decorative purposes both externally and internally. The plan of the church consists of a nave and chancel with no structural division. There are north and south aisles extending along both the nave and the chancel. The aisles at the sides of the chancel are now used as vestries. Above both the nave and the chancel is a clerestory. There are doorways on both the north and south sides of the nave, the doorway on the north also having a porch. Both doorways are in Norman style with round-headed arches.