St Peter's Church (also known as St Peter's by the Waterfront) is one of the twelve medieval churches in the

ancient borough The ancient boroughs were a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales. The ancient boroughs covered only important towns and were established by charters granted at different times by the monarchy. Their history is large ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, England. An

Augustinian priory Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

dedicated to St Peter and Paul occupied a six-acre site to the north and east of the church. As the secular canons regularly used the chancel for religious purposes, leaving the nave for use of parishioners, the church was also known as St Peter and Paul's. The church is located between College Street and Star Lane, with St Peters Street leading north into Ipswich town centre.

History

The location is probably that of the earliest church building in Ipswich, there being a St Peter's church mentioned in the

Doomsday book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

. The church was located just north of a ford by which visitors arriving in Ipswich could cross the

River Orwell The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, where the river becomes tidal. It broadens into ...

. On 8 January 1297,

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

married his youngest daughter

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (7 August 1282 – 5 May 1316) was the eighth and youngest daughter of King Edward I of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile. Of all of her siblings, she was closest to her younger brother King Edward II, as they were only ...

John I, Count of Holland John I (1284 – 10 November 1299) was Count of Holland and son of Count Floris V. John inherited the county in 1296 after the murder of his father. Shortly after his birth, after negotiations between Floris and King Edward I of England in Apr ...

in this earlier church. The existing structure was built in 1460 and contains a

Tournai font Tournai fonts are a type of baptismal font made from blue black limestone during the 12th and early 13th centuries in and around the Belgian town of Tournai by local masons. There are seven complete examples in England and a disputed number in ...

, which dates from c. 1170–90.

Heritage centre

The building was restored with a

Heritage Lottery grant The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

in 2006. The Ipswich Hospital Band received £772,000. The building was reopened in 2008 as a

heritage centre A heritage centre, center, or museum is a public facility – typically a museum, monument, visitor centre, or park – that is primarily dedicated to the presentation of historical and cultural information about a place and its people, and often ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter's Church, Ipswich Church of England church buildings in Ipswich