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

ancient borough An ancient borough was a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the co ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

, England. An

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

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

Domesday 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. 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, about half a mile below where the river beco ...

. 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 (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

married his youngest daughter

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

John I, Count of Holland John I (1284 – 10 November 1299) was Count of Holland and Zeeland as 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 E ...

in this earlier church. The existing structure was built in 1460 and contains a Tournai font, which dates from c. 1170–90.

Heritage centre

The building was restored with a Heritage Lottery grant 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 preservation, historical and Cultural heritage, cultural infor ...

and is maintained by the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust.

References

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