St Peter

There is a warmth and peach which comes to you from the many Christians who have worshipped here down the ages. Built in Saxon times (c740-750AD) it served as a Minster (or ‘mother church’) to around seventeen other churches from Harthill in the west to Goole in the east. It sits atop a stirking hill across from the spectacular white, cylindrical keep of the 12th century castle.

For 400 years it remained in its original form. From around 1100 the church was extended and expanded until around 1450 when the church became much as it is today. As the oldest building in South Yorkshire, the church has a lovely ‘across the centuries’ feel. There is a warmth and peach which comes to you from the many Christians who have worshipped here down the ages.

There are many interesting features to see. These include the ‘hagioscope’ and ‘lychnoscope’, two squints of different ages. There is a medieval altar slab removed from the ruins of Conisbrough Castle chapel and aumbrys and piscinas of different ages and styles as well as a 15th century font and two 13th century stained glass windows. In the porch why not try and determine the subject of a lovely Roman British carving, inside the church you can discover a 12th century tomb chest mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in the notes to his novel ‘Ivanhoe’.

Children can count how many carved mice they can find on pieces of furniture by Robert ‘mouseman’ Thompson.