St Peter, Friesthorpe
St Peter, Friesthorpe
St Peter’s is a Grade II parish church on Church Lane, Friesthorpe, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln. A small medieval church, it is known for the Beechey family memorials to five sons of the vicarage killed in the First World War.
- Location
- Friesthorpe, Lincolnshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Lincolnshire
- City / town
- Friesthorpe
- Address
- Church Lane, Friesthorpe, Lincolnshire, LN3 5AL
- Postcode
- LN3 5AL
- Built
- 13th-century origins; nave and chancel rebuilt 1841
- Architect
- Young of Lincoln (1841 rebuilding)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Peter
- Diocese
- Lincoln
- Parish
- Friesthorpe
- Grade
- II
- Style
- Medieval tower with 1841 Gothic nave and chancel
- Materials
- Coursed limestone rubble; slate roofs with stone coped gables
- Grid reference
- TF 072 834
- Opening hours
- All day, every day.
- Access
- Level access throughout
Overview
Historic England lists a parish church of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with restoration and rebuilding in 1841 by Young of Lincoln. The fabric is coursed limestone rubble under slate roofs with stone-coped gables: a western tower, nave and chancel. The three-stage fifteenth-century tower has a plinth, string courses, a pyramidal roof and angle buttresses. The two-light west window has Perpendicular panel tracery. Nave windows are nineteenth-century pointed lights; the chancel keeps recut early-fourteenth-century windows, including a three-light east window. The tower arch is double-chamfered; an Early English arch with keeled responds survives in the tower chamber.
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer and Pevsner note a medieval west tower with Early English bell-openings and a Perpendicular west window; nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1841. A local account states that a thatched roof was blown off in the gales of 1839. The church holds tablets to Rev. Prince Beechey and Amy Beechey, whose eight sons went to war and only three returned; a 2016 stained-glass window by Andrew Seddon commemorates them. The church is open daily.