St Peter's Church, Waverton

St Peter’s Church stands in the quiet village of Waverton, Cheshire, built from local red sandstone under a Lakeland slate roof. The large west tower rises above a nave of three bays and a single-bay chancel, with north and south aisles framing the body of the church. A Tudor west doorway leads to a porch that shelters a weathered Virgin and Child statue carved between the shields of the Dutton and Hatton families. The tower’s three stages include Perpendicular windows, quatrefoil openings and a shingled pyramidal roof added late in the 19th century. Inside, the 17th-century roofs remain from the 1635 work, while the octagonal font and timber-framed chancel walls recall earlier craftsmanship. The church holds records reaching back to 1582 and bells cast in 1615, 1908 and 2008, including four by George Lee and two by John Taylor and Company. A 1903 pulpit serves as a memorial to the 1st Duke of Westminster, and the east window follows Perpendicular style. The royal arms of Charles II, painted in 1663, hang in the tower alongside a table of tithes. John Douglas oversaw restorations in 1845 and 1888, rebuilding the clerestory and adding the tower roof. Earlier, John Tilston of Lower Huxley Hall paid for the north chapel in 1640. Outside, the Grade II-listed gates, gatepiers and walls enclose a churchyard with a 1731 sundial and war graves from the two world wars. The combined benefice with St John, Aldford and St Mary, Bruera links this building to a wider rural parish.