St Peter's Church, Welford-on-Avon

A small church was originally built on this site in 1059, by monks from Deerhurst Priory in Gloucestershire. It is thought that the bowl of the font survives from this church.^[4]

There is a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, west tower and south porch.^[3][5]

The nave and narrow aisles, with two-bay arcades, and the semicircular outer order around the south doorway, are of the 12th century. The lowest part of the tower is of this period; the second stage is 13th-century. It was heightened in the 15th century, and is tall in relation to the rest of the church.^[3][5]

The chancel was rebuilt in 1330–40, and two windows in the south wall of the nave and one window in the north wall were enlarged at this time.^[3][5]

There was restoration in 1866–67 by George Gilbert Scott. The tower was damaged by a fire in 1884, and was repaired the following year.^[5]

The chancel was refurbished in the 1920s, and the rood screen, replacing an earlier screen, was installed. It was made by Joseph Northcott of Beaworthy in Devon, and is a copy of a Benedictine screen. The east window of the chancel, by Geoffrey Webb, was installed in 1924.^[4]

In the nave is a slab commemorating Walter Williams, a 15th-century priest, and a slab to Anne and William Jakeman, died 1723 and 1735.^[3][5]

According to tradition, the bells of Welford rang out at the victory of the Battle of Crécy in 1346.^[4]

A later ring of six bells, by Richard Sanders of Bromsgrove, were installed in 1721. They were destroyed by a fire at the church in 1884, and were replaced the following year by six bells by Barwell.^[2]

The present ring of eight bells are by John Taylor & Co. Six of these, dated 1960, are recasts of the bells by Barwell; the others are dated 1980.^[2]