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Monument Types

• CHURCH (Early Medieval to Modern - 1101 AD to 2050 AD)

Summary

Pevsner says the church has a c.1160 north arcade, c.1180 chancel arch responds and was extended in the C14th. It has a perpendicular tower. The C16th aisles have been demolished.

Additional Information

<1> Historic England, National Heritage List for England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1061661 (Website). SLE7874.

Listed building description:
Grade II*
"Church. C12 - C13 and C15, much restored 1862/3 including new roof and aisles. Coursed squared stone and rubble stone and stone dressings. Welsh slate roof with stone coped gables. Buttresses, some with set-offs. W tower, nave, aisles, chancel, and N chancel porch. C15 tower of 2 stages with W buttresses, W window, blocked S arch and blocked window within. SW staircase has W loopholes and projects to S. 4 2-light bell openings, W with later transom. Battlements and small, low, recessed, leaded spirelet with weathervane. Blocked double chamfered nave arch with door. Late Norman 2 bay N arcade carefully rebuilt 1862. Arches with roll and zig-zag mouldings. Round pier with capitals and responds with lobed frieze to capitals. 2 bay S arcade with double chamfered arches on octagonal pier. 2 2-light dormers to C19 roof of 2 bays and ½ bay at either end. Curved braces to collars. N aisle has windows with plate tracery, one with fragments of medieval glass. Many-moulded chancel arch, also rebuilt. Chancel has 2 windows to N and S, both to E flat-topped. E window of 1862 with Decorated tracery. C19 stained glass. Gabled porch to vestry, probably of 1862, with flat-topped doorway. Window with fragments of medieval stained glass. Chancel roof similar to nave. Chancel also has small N 1-light, N doorway, and S piscina. S aisle has 1-light windows to W and E and flat-topped 3-light to S. Many-moulded S doorway with a shaft either side. To either side a medieval carved stone lion couchant on plinth. Both aisles rebuilt 1862/3 after being pulled down late C16. C15 font. Pevsner, and White's Leicestershire and Rutland 1877."
Listed 29/12/1966.

<2> Pevsner N, 1984, The Buildings of England Leicestershire and Rutland, p72 (Bibliographic reference). SLE4.

"The N arcade was reconstructed in 1862 with the old materials. It is still splendid to look at. Two bays, a strong round pier with a square abacus, capitals to the pier and responds with a kind of lobed frieze or fringe, decorated to nave and arch openings, undecorated to the aisle. Arches with a big demi-roll, a fine roll towards the nave, and copious zigzag in the soffit and on the face (different detail on each arch). Hoodmould with a raw kind of nailhead motif. All this is clearly late Norman, and not yet Transitional - say of c.1160. The chancel arch responds are a little later, with large, broad, ribbed upright leaves and chamfered abaci. That looks c.1180. The arch itself is of 1862.
"The Norman church was extended W in the C14 by one bay and a S arcade with standard details added. Insufficient land W of this new work meant that the Perpendicular tower was built within the first bay of the nave. The blocked aisle bays are visible externally. Until the C16, when the aisles were demolished, the tower was connected to them by a small arch (N) and an opening under a large lintel (S), both now blocked. W Millican rebuilt the aisles in 1862 as part of his extensive restoration. His are the two pretty wooden dormers, the fittings, and the roofs with their jagged arch-braces. - SCULPTURE. Outside the S porch two stone lions couchant on plinths, possibly associated with a former porch of 1594. - STAINED GLASS. Some C14 canopy work in the vestry. - C15 fragments in the N aisle."

<3> Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 1870, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 2, Vol 2 (1870), p173-4, p256 (Journal). SLE4983.

Allexton Church. "The dates of the various parts of the church are probably asfollows:-
The Norman arches on the north side and the chancel arch about 1160 ..., the western portion of the chancel at the end of the C13th ...; the South aisle the middle of the C15th ...; the tower and eastern portion of the chancel about 1500; both aisles removed and porch built 1594 ... .
The church is now [1862] being restored.... The Norman arches were taken down and rebuilt exactly as they were before. The new aisle is of a transitional character… The south side also is being restored. The arches have been taken down, but will be rebuilt exactly as they were before. The chancel walls…have been lowered and there is to be a high pitched roof of stained pine".

<4> Leicestershire SMR Comment (Unpublished document). SLE7870.

In 2002 the church was added to English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Survey as Level 4 (6 being highest risk).

<5> 2009-2021, Project Gargoyle (Figurative Carvings of Leicestershire and Rutland) (Archive). SLE7917.

Project Gargoyle survey work in 2011 recorded a small 12th century carving in the chancel arch, together with two free-standing lions by the church porch (Pevsner suggests they are pre-Reformation) and a small number of label stops which may be 13th or 14th century, or may be from the 19th century restoration.

<6> 2016, National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) accessioning (Website). SLE4981.

SUMMARY: "Church. 12th-13th and 15th century, much restored 1862-63 including new roof and aisles. Coursed squared stone and rubble stone and stone dressings. Welsh slate roof with stone coped gables. Buttresses, some with set-offs. W tower, nave, aisles, chancel, and N chancel porch."
URL: 'https://nrhe-to-her.esdm.co.uk/NRHE/RecordDetail.aspx?pageid=45&he_uid=323397', accessioned 27/11/2024.

<7> Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 (6") and 10K historic mapping, 1902-50 (Map). SLE7243.

[SK 81760040] St Peter's Church.

<8> Nichols J, The History and Antiquities of Leicestershire, Vol 3 pt 1 (1800), p10 and plate III (Bibliographic reference). SLE7.

"Allexton. The church, dedicated to St Peter, is built with ...stone, and consists of a tower ...a very low and small spire ...; a nave and chancel ...; a North doorway into the chancel, and a South one with a porch into the nave …".

<9> Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, Field Investigators Comments, F1 ECW 18-AUG-59 (Website). SLE3488.

The church is in use for public worship. Displayed in the nave is a notice listing the rectors from AD 1200-1922.

Sources

Associated Finds

None recorded

Designations

• Listed Building (II*) 1061661: CHURCH OF ST. PETER
• Conservation Area: Allexton

Associated Images

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