West Tytherley is in central W Hampshire, seven miles NW of Romsey and less than a mile from the Wiltshire border. The country here is rolling and wooded with mixed pasture and arable cultivation. The village is just over a mile S of the Roman road from Old Sarum to Winchester, and the church stand at the S end of the village centre.
St Peter’s consists of a nave with a south porch, chancel and W tower. The nave, porch and tower are of 1833 by G. R. Guthrie; the nave entirely of brick and the porch and tower of brick and knapped flint. All of this is in a Georgian style; the nave broad with a W gallery carried on slim shafts. In 1877 a grey ashlar chancel was added by J. Colson, and the square-headed Perpendicular style windows in the nave and tower must be of that date.
This church replaced a medieval one that stood in the churchyard across the road to the E. It was described as ruinous in a meeting held on 26th December 1831, and its demolition began on the same day. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 14th March 1832, and it was consecrated on 19th April 1833. The site and £500 towards the cost of the new church were provided by the Lord of the Manor, Charles Baring Wall. A drawing of the old church, now in the vestry, shows it to have been a two-cell building with a W bell turret, apparently 13thc in style. The only Romanesque sculpture is the Purbeck marble font.
