---
title: "St Peter, Thornton"
description: "Located in Thornton, Leicestershire. Built C13–C16; chancel 1864. Diocese of Leicester. Grade I. Early English and later medieval; C19 chancel style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Leicestershire","Thornton","Grade I","Medieval"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-peter-thornton"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:53:55.211Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T17:48:22.031Z"
location: "Thornton, Leicestershire"
country: "England"
county: "Leicestershire"
town: "Thornton"
address: "Church Lane, Thornton, Leicestershire, LE67 1AA"
postcode: "LE67 1AA"
built: "C13–C16; chancel 1864"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Peter"]
diocese: "Leicester"
grade: "I"
style: "Early English and later medieval; C19 chancel"
materials: "Ashlar tower, Mountsorrel stone, red brick and half-timbering to the porch, lead roofs"
website: "http://www.j22churches.org.uk/thornton"
openingHours: "Though kept locked because of its isolation, the church keys are available from the nearby corner shop. Visitors are always welcome."
parish: "Thornton"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1074115"
gridReference: "SK 4683 0766"
accessNotes: "Non-accessible toilets in church"
---

# St Peter, Thornton

St Peter’s is a Grade I Church of England parish church on Church Lane in Thornton, Leicestershire (postcode LE67 1AA), overlooking Thornton Reservoir, in the Diocese of Leicester. The Gazette record’s Leicestershire location matches this church; it is not the Yorkshire or other English Thorntons.

## Overview

The listing describes a parish church of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries with a chancel of 1864. The fabric is largely Early English in character: nave and aisles from the beginning of the fourteenth century or slightly earlier, and a tall two-stage fifteenth-century west tower with a recessed spire. The five-bay nave has octagonal piers on the north and filleted quatrefoil piers on the south. Fittings include a fifteenth-century octagonal font, the base of a fifteenth-century rood screen (now in the north aisle), a painted Commandments tympanum dated 1820, and fragments of early-fourteenth-century glass in the south aisle east window. The parish notes linenfold pews from 1560 and a working clock of some four hundred years; a sixth bell was added in 2019. The south porch is nineteenth-century brick and half-timbering over an early-fourteenth-century door.

Historic England listed the church Grade I on 7 November 1966 (list entry 1074115). It is in the Junction 22 benefice with neighbouring Leicestershire parishes.

## Further Information

- [Junction 22: St Peter’s Thornton](https://www.j22churches.org.uk/thornton)
- [Historic England list entry 1074115](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1074115)