St Peter's Church, Nottingham

The Church of St Peter with St James
St Peter's Church Nottingham
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Broad Church
Website	www.nottinghamchurches.org
Administration
Diocese	Southwell and Nottingham
Province	Province of York
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Rev. Christopher Harrison, Rev. Stephen Morris, Rev. Chrissie Little, Rev. Alison Maddocks
Laity
Organist/Director of music	Dr Peter Siepmann
Organist(s)	Dr Michael Leuty, Paul Hayward
Churchwarden(s)	Helena Lord, Keith Mountford

St Peter's Church, Nottingham is an Anglican parish church in the city of Nottingham.

The church is Grade I listed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport as a building of outstanding architectural or historic interest.^[1]

It is part of the parish of All Saints', St Mary's and St Peter's, Nottingham. A map of the parish is available on Google Maps

Formally it is the church of St Peter with St James.

History

St Peter's is one of the three mediaeval parish churches in Nottingham, the others being St Mary's and St Nicholas'. The parish of St. James' Church, Standard Hill, founded in 1807 was united with St Peter's in 1933 and the official title "St Peter with St James" came into being. (St James's was demolished a few years later; some monuments from St James's are preserved in St Peter's.)

The church shows traces of many stages of construction from about 1180 onwards (the original church of around 1100 was destroyed by fire).

The history of St. Peter's is covered in detail on the Southwell Diocesan Church History Project Website.

List of incumbents

1241 - ? Master John de Nottingham 1259? William Bishop 1280 - ? John de Cathalle, "deacon" 1288 - ? Richard de Stapilford 1292 - ? Peter de Brus, of Pykering, "chaplain" 1300 - ? Adam de Kirkeby, "deacon" by 1317 Master Adam de Pykering 1322 - 1323? Lancelot de Corembto, "acolyte" 1323 - ? William de Wylughby, "clerk" by 1347 Robert Jolan 1347 - 1349 William de Whatton, of Stoke 1349 - 1370 Henry de Keworth, "chaplain" 1370 - 1375 Robert de Neubold, "priest" 1375 - 1409? William de Rodyngton, "clerk" by 1411 Richard de Chilwell 1421? - 1426 Master Hugh Martyll 1426 - ? Master John Burton, "priest" 1430 - 1439 Robert Willoughby 1439 - 1445 John Drayton, "clerk" 1445 - 1484 Master William Gull 1484 - 1486 Master John Mayewe 1486 - 1499 Master Robert Colyngham 1499 - 1510 Master William Ilkeston 1510 - 1538 John Plowgh, senior, otherwise Kyngesbury 1539 - c.1550 John Plough, junior 1550 - 1559 Nicholas Cooke by 1568 Charles Morley 1578 - 1583 John Wytter 1583 - 1588 Charles Aynsworth 1588 - 1600 Ralph Shutte 1600 - 1604 John Pare 1604 - 1606 Francis Rodes

1606 - 1609 Roger Freeman 1610 John Kell 1611 - 1617 Thomas Law 1617 - 1640 George Cotes 1640 - 1645 John Goodall 1645 - 1656 Richard Whitchurch 1656 - 1662 John Barret 1663 - 1667 John Aistrop 1667 - 1672 Samuel Leeke 1673 - 1680 Edward Buxton 1680 - 1692 William Wilson 1693 - 1705 Nathan Drake 1705 - 1721 Timothy Fenton 1721 - 1725 James Wilson 1725 - 1767 Edward Chappell 1767 - 1782 Samuel Martin 1783 - 1797 Jeremiah Bigsby 1797 - 1814 John Ashpinshaw, later Staunton 1814 - 1853 Robert White Almond 1853 - 1866 William Howard (formerly vicar of St. John the Baptist's Church, Leenside, Nottingham) 1866 - 1870 David Whalley (formerly vicar of St. John's Carrington) 1870 - 1906 George Edgcome 1906 - 1918 Arthur Watson Dewick 1918 - 1931 Herbert Percy Hale 1933 - 1936 Herbert Victor Turner later Bishop of Penrith 1937 - 1948 Thomas Arnold Lee 1948 - 1979 Angus Inglis 1979 - 1985 Malcolm Clive Goldsmith 1985 - 1999 Leslie James Morley 2000 - 2008 Andrew Gilchrist Deuchar 2009 - Christopher Harrison

Music

St Peter's is home to a flourishing musical tradition. The church boasts a new organ, a fine choir, and a popular series of Saturday morning concerts. The Organist & Director of Music since 2007 is Peter Siepmann.

Choir

There is a long-standing choral tradition at St Peter's, developed by musicians such as Vincent Trivett (Organist 1906-1947) and Kendrick Partington (Organist 1957-1994). Today, the choir can be heard singing in church every Sunday, as well as in frequent concert performances.

As well as singing at St Peter's throughout the year (and once a month at the sister church of All Saints' Church, Nottingham), the choir often sings in churches and cathedrals across the UK and abroad. The first such visit was to Lichfield Cathedral during Easter Week 1969. Recent visits include those to York Minster, Bath Abbey, and the cathedrals at Winchester, Peterborough, Llandaff and Gloucester. In August 2008, the choir was privileged to be invited to sing the services for several days at Westminster Abbey.

The choir tackles a broad range of repertoire from plainsong and renaissance polyphony to Romantic and contemporary works from across the world. It is an amateur voluntary group that produces what the Nottingham Evening Post has termed an "outstanding standard of music-making" (May 2009), thanks to the extraordinary commitment and hard work of its members.

Further information, including audio and video clips, can be found on the parish website at [1].

Concerts

St Peter's is an excellent concert venue and its light yet warm acoustic has proved particularly good for chamber music. The principal concert provision at St Peter's is given by the regular series of Saturday morning 'coffee break' concerts. These were started in 1988 by the organist of the time, Kendrick Partington, along with his wife Mary, and have proved a popular attraction ever since.

The hour-long concerts are held at 11am every Saturday during October, February and June, and occasionally at other times during the year. Coffee and biscuits are served from 10.15am. The concerts are given by a broad range of performers that include local musicians, young professionals, university students, choirs, chamber orchestras, brass bands, and more. The very pleasant Schimmel baby grand piano, kindly on 'permanent loan' to the church by a member of the congregation, is often heard at the concerts. A wide range of repertoire is presented to audiences that usually number between one and two hundred. The church is proud to provide the concerts free of charge, though donations to the church music fund are invited at the door.

The church also occasionally hosts more formal evening performances, for which there is an admission charge made to the audience. More information about all the concerts at St Peter's, including photographs and examples of past programmes, can be found on the parish website at [2].

Organ

The first organ since the Commonwealth period was installed by Lincoln in 1812. This was enlarged by Lloyd and Dudgeon in 1863 and has been adapted and restored several times since by E. Wragg & Son, Henry Willis & Sons and Hill, Norman & Beard. In 1952, much of the organ of St Columba, Mansfield Road was incorporated into the St Peter's instrument.

The organ, in ill health for sometime, become unusable on Remembrance Sunday 2007. A new organ was installed in December 2010 (heard for the first time on Christmas Eve), and is unique in the UK – it is the first organ of its size to combine pipe and digital technology seamlessly alongside one another to such an extent. The organ is situated in the North-East corner of the church, with the Great and much of the Pedal organ speaking into the Nave from behind the historic eighteenth century case, the Choir organ speaking from a newly constructed case on the chancel balcony, and the Swell and some of the Pedal division speaking from within the resonance of the organ chamber. The organ is a not only a magnificent recital instrument, but it is also able to provide a firm support for congregational singing Sunday-by-Sunday, as well as colourful accompaniments for the church's accomplished choir. More information about the instrument, including the thinking behind its installation, and historical information about the old organ, is available on the parish website at [3].

Organists

There are notes of payments to organists in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

• 1481-1482 And for 5s paid to the organist (lusori ad organa) in the aforesaid Church in this year.^[2]
• 1516/17 - 1517/18 And for 6s 11d paid to Robert Dowse, organist, at the request of the greater part of the parishioners, in augmentation of his salary.^[3]

• On 25 October 1785, William Bradley was allowed one guinea for teaching the boys to sing.
• Organist paid £12/12 in 1816 but cost was not borne by the church.

• Miss King - 1818 - 1825 - ?
• Miss Price c.1834
• William Archer c.1834
• Mrs Cooper c.1840
• Mr. Woolley c.1844
• R.G. Parr - 1854 - 1858 - ?
• W. Selby c.1862
• T.L. Selby c.1864
• W. Selby c.1866 - 1879 - ?
• Lawrence J Norman ca 1901
• Vincent W. Trivett 1906 - 1947 (formerly Lady Bay Church West Bridgford 1901-1906)
• Harold E F Bebbington 1947 - 1952
• Cyril Whitehead 1952 - 1953
• Douglas Madden 1953 - 1957
• Kendrick Partington 1957 - 1994
• Gary Seiling 1994 - 1995
• Andrew Teague 1995 - 2003
• Philip Collin 2003 - 2007
• Dr Peter Siepmann 2007 -

See also

• All Saints' Church, Nottingham
• St. Mary's Church, Nottingham

References

1. ^ Details from listed building database (458588) - Grade I. Images of England. English Heritage.
2. ^ Thoroton Society Record Series Volume VII (1939). The account books of the Guilds of St. George and St. Mary in the church of St. Peter, Nottingham. R.F.B. Hodgkinson.
3. ^ Thoroton Society Record Series Volume VII (1939). The account books of the Guilds of St. George and St. Mary in the church of St. Peter, Nottingham. R.F.B. Hodgkinson.

• Alfred Stapleton, 1905, Churches and monasteries of old and new Nottingham
• Keith Train, 1981, Train on churches, Nottingham

External links

• Pictures of St.Peter's from Nottingham21
• See St. Peter's Church on Google Street View.

Coordinates: 52°57′8″N 1°8′55″W / 52.95222°N 1.14861°W / 52.95222; -1.14861