NHER 8275 (Building record) - St Peter's Church, Smallburgh

A church has been recorded on this site since the 12th century but the present building is all 15th century (the 14th century style east window is in fact a Victorian replacement) and consists of an aisleless nave, chancel and south porch. The old west tower collapsed in 1677 and was replaced in the Georgian period with a box-like one. In 1902 the west end was rebuilt with a bell cote, in a rather austere style that sits a little uncomfortably with the rambling graveyard. Inside is also somewhat spartan, mainly the result of a Victorian restoration, but contrast this with the overpowering painted false hammerbeam roof, contemporary with rebuilt west end, but painted in the 1920s under the supervision of the Rector's wife, with devotional texts on the wall plate. The roof itself looks unfinished, the hammerbeam ends sticking out into the air. A good piscina and sedilia can be seen in the chancel and there is another piscina in the southeast corner of the nave. Another medieval survival is the bottom half of the painted 15th century rood screen, retaining a good deal of colour, though the saints in the panels are heavily defaced. Three more panels are reset on the east wall. The south door, rather damaged, is also 15th century, the octagonal font probably 14th century.