Almost all the windows in St Peter’s were put in place during the renovations to the church in 1877. Earlier windows were probably damaged or destroyed by religious upheavals in past centuries.
The subjects of our windows fall into two distinct types:
- Religious subjects in the nave
- Memorials in the chancel.
The nave is the main body of the church. The windows here all show religious subjects and commemorate local people and visitors.
Nave Windows
There are nine windows in the nave, all depicting religious subjects. They almost all date from the 1870s and most were made by the firm Lavers and Westlake, which produced high gothic revival and pre-Raphaelite designs in the 19th century.
Each window is divided into two with a different subject in the upper and lower sections.
Chancel Windows
The chancel is the area through the arch with the choir stalls and altar. Five of these seven windows are memorials to the Stanford and MacDonald families who lived in Preston Manor. The sixth one is dedicated to a local priest in 1957 and the seventh is the east window which is a simple geometric design.
By tradition, the Lord of the Manor had responsibility for the upkeep of the chancel and the villagers were responsible for the nave. The chancel in St Peter’s contains two windows showing memorials to the soldiers of the family and three windows showing heraldic devices of the Stanfords and their associated families.