St Peter, Steane

St Peter’s Chapel stands in the grounds of Steane Park, Northamptonshire, a Grade I chapel of ease in the parish of Hinton-in-the-Hedges with Steane, Diocese of Peterborough.

Overview

Historic England records a chapel with a datestone of 1620, incorporating fourteenth- and fifteenth-century details, in limestone and ironstone ashlar. The plan is a nave with north aisle and north chapel. The symmetrical three-bay west front has a four-centred doorway whose lintel reads “Holiness Becometh the Howse O Lord forever”, a reused five-light fourteenth-century window with reticulated tracery above, and a plaque “Built by T.C.1620”. A sundial on the south-west buttress is framed by swags and cornucopiae. The south doorway has engaged Ionic columns and an open segmental pediment with the arms of Crewe and Bray.

Inside, a two-bay arcade has a quatrefoil pier; a roof beam is dated 1665. Fittings include early eighteenth-century box pews, a panelled pulpit, altar rails with twisted balusters, and a marble altar table given by Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, in 1720. The north chapel holds Crewe monuments, among them Sir Thomas Crewe (died 1634) attributed to Gerard Christmas, and Temperance Brown (died 1634) signed by John and Mathias Christmas. The chapel has no electricity; summer evensongs continue under an eighteenth-century covenant requiring at least six services a year.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1371825
• Astwick Vale Benefice