St Peters Church
The little church of St. Peter situated in Aubourn near the Hall served the villages until Victorian times, when demand grew for a bigger Church. This demand came notably, according to a newspaper report, from Haddington residents who felt that Aubourn residents got the best seats. Matters came to a head when the squire Henry Nevile (Great Grandfather of the late Sir Henry Nevile—d 1996) observed one Sunday that St. Peters was so full that people were sitting on one another's knees!
All except the chancel of the little church was knocked down and some of the stone was used for the ‘new’ St. Peters. It was designed by J.G. Hakewill of London and was built with an octagonal spire with oak shingles and three bells. This church remained in use until the 1960’s when water seeping into a gap in the stonework froze and split the wall. There were no funds to repair the Church and a redundancy notice was pinned to the door in 1968.
The smaller church of St. Peters in Aubourn village then became the Parish Church in 1968 and has been in use since then.
The Church (St. Peter), was built on the present site (halfway between Haddington and Aubourn) in 1862 at a cost of about £4000, defrayed by the late Henry Neville Esq. It was in the early English style, consisting of nave, apsidal chancel, transepts and a square tower, with a spire rising to a height of 120 feet. It was fitted with open benches, and contained six windows of stained glass.
Quote from Whites Directory of Lincolnshire 1892.
St. Peters Church before it was partly demolished in 1970s
The Victorian Church Today
The Clock Tower, at it is now known, is a Grade II listed building and continues to serve the villages of Aubourn and Haddington as it is surrounded by the graveyard with the village war memorial, which is still being used.
The church was part demolished in the 1970’s and the remaining standing structure was saved from total demolition by the weight of public opinion with local residents raising funds to retain the building within the parish.
It is at the heart of the two villages and is widely recognised as a local landmark introducing a welcome verticality into an essentially flat landscape and offers an added local interest in there being a magnificent working clock dedicated to the community in memory of a parishioner. Aubourn and Haddington Parish Council have leased the building from the Lincoln Diocesan Trust since 1974 and with limited resources have maintained the building and serviced the working clock. In 2005/6, with the increasing costs of repairs, which were necessary, it was with the full support of the parishioners and other local groups that the parish council led a project to restore the building which saved it from demolition and secured its future for another 100 years. (See Clock Tower Project)
Aubourn Clock Tower 2021