Hepworth is midway between Bury St Edmunds and Diss, approximately 9 miles from each. The land here is low and rolling and given over to arable cultivation. There are common lands to the NW and SE of the village, which consists largely of houses and farm buildings around a junction of minor roads, with the church, rectory and Grange Farm at the eastern edge. St Peter's was burnt down in 1898 when its thatch caught fire, and only the tower, the walls and the porch survived the blaze. It was rebuilt by J. S. Corder of Ipswich. It is a church of the 13thc. and later, consisting of a nave, chancel and W tower, all of flint. The nave is tall with high 15thc. windows to N and S, and its roof has been raised. The N and S doorways are 14thc.; the S under a flint porch, which is, almost entirely 19thc. work. The nave wall behind and to the W of the S porch has a large brick repair in the shape of an arch, suggesting that the doorway and porch were once further W. Inside is the blocked N entrance to a rood loft. The chancel, almost as high as the nave, is early-14thc., with reticulated E, N and S windows and a contemporary S doorway and piscina. The tower has diagonal buttresses with flushwork at the top, a late 13thc. W doorway and tower arch and a 19thc. W window. The upper part has been rebuilt and the structure strengthened with iron clamps; this work dated to 1677 by ironwork on the W face. More clamps were added at a lower level in 1828. The bell-openings are of brick and date from the 17thc. restoration. The parapet is plain and the pyramid roof is fitted with a W dormer. Inside the church are two loose stones, a capital and a voussoir, from a 12thc. doorway.
