St Peter's Church is a church in

Empingham Empingham is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish was 815 at the 2001 census including Horn and increasing to 880 at the 2011 census. It lies close to the dam of Rutland Water an ...

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

. It is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building.

History

The church was mostly built in the 13th century but there has certainly been a church here since the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

era. The southern arcade, dating back to the early 13th century, is the oldest part of the current church. The chancel also dates from the 13th century and has a double piscina and a triple sedilia. The northern aisle was built in the 14th century. The piscinas indicate where the altars were around the church. In the 15th century the

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

was added and the roof was raised. The figures carved on the roof were added at this time. A slightly painted over, medieval wall painting depicting the Virgin Mary, is situated on the southern wall. The northern transept has some stone grave slabs as well as a painting showing the faces of St Joachim and

St Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

References

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