St Peter's Church, Adderley

The church is constructed in yellow-grey sandstone, with some red sandstone in the tower. The roofs are in slate. Its plan is cruciform, with a three-bay nave, a single-bay chancel and transepts, and a west tower. There is an apsidal end to the chancel and the south transept. The tower is in two stages on a plinth. At the corners are Doric pilasters. In the lower stage is a round-headed west doorway. The upper stage contains two-light louvred bell openings. At the top is a moulded cornice, and a plain parapet. The north transept (Kilmorey chapel) has a battlemented parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners and on the apex of the gable. It contains a three-light north window, a two-light east window, and a west doorway with four steps leading up to it. The remainder of the church has a plain parapet. Each of the gable ends has a triangular pediment, and on the north and south gables are small gabled finials. The windows have pointed arches and Gothic-style tracery.[1] The windows have cast iron frames and tracery in Perpendicular style.[4] These were made in nearby Coalbrookdale.[5] On the south side of the nave is a pair of doors.[1]

The church is divided between the nave and the rest of the church.[1] At the entrance to the north transept is an elaborately carved wooden screen dating from about 1637 with Tuscan columns. The chancel screen dates from 1908, includes Corinthian columns, and was probably made by C. Hodgson Fowler.[4] The font is large, square, and Norman in style. Its carving includes rosettes and volutes, and it contains a medieval inscription in Latin, which translates as "Here wickedly the first man enjoyed the apple with his wife".[4][6] The wooden pulpit is hexagonal and dates from about 1801. On each side of the tower arch are Commandment boards, and in the vestry, under the tower, is a benefactors board. Above the south doorway are tablets inscribed with the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. There is a fireplace in the west wall of the north transept.[1] The stained glass consists of twelve heraldic panels containing the Needham family arms. The oldest monument is a brass dating from about 1390. Another brass commemorates Sir Robert Needham who died in 1556 and his wife, Agnes who died in 1560. This brass was lifted c. 1970 under the supervision of Peter Scott, Paul Dinsdale, and Brian Egan, members of the Monumental Brass Society, together with local resident Albert Edwards,as it had loosened in its setting and required to be relaid. It was discovered to be a 'palimpsest' - i.e. an earlier brass, probably fourteenth century Flemish in origin, which had been cut up and re-used by engraving the reverse side. There are other memorials to members of the Needham family.[4]