St Peter, Normanby by Spital

St Peter’s is a Grade I redundant church on Main Street in Normanby by Spital, Lincolnshire, now vested in the Churches Conservation Trust. It stands close to Ermine Street, the former Roman road now the A15.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church of the twelfth century, with work of about 1200 and the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, restored in 1890. The fabric is coursed limestone rubble, some banded with ironstone, with ashlar dressings and lead roofs. The plan is a west tower, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, and chancel. The unbuttressed twelfth-century three-stage tower has a weathered chevron string course and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles and gargoyles; chevron-decorated ashlar is reset in the tower walls. A large vertical stone, possibly a cross shaft, is used as a quoin at the north-west angle of the nave.

The west wall of the north aisle has a small twelfth-century round-headed light. Foundations of a former apse stand at the east end, and quoins show that the chancel was lengthened. The east wall of the chancel is banded ironstone and limestone. Wikipedia and the Trust describe a twelfth-century arcade with notable carved capitals. The church became redundant in 1975. Eighteenth-century benefaction boards survive. Because the building is in Trust care, there is no parish website; access is via a local keyholder.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1064189
• Wikipedia: St Peter's Church, Normanby by Spital