St Peter’s Church

This Norman church has been a place of worship for 1300 years and parts of the present structure date from 1266. It’s a fascinating place, not least for its curious Georgian box pews, which local landowners would rent while the serving staff and labourers sat in the open seats in the south transept. Against the north wall of the chancel is the Cole Monument, depicting barrister George Cole, his wife and child, all reclining in Elizabethan dress – an unusual design for an English church. Of interest to Canadians, St Peter’s is the burial place of Captain George Vancouver, who was laid to rest here in 1798; his simple tomb is on the southern wall of the cemetery.