No one knows when the first Church was built in Drayton Bassett but it was discovered in the late 1980's, during  excavations for the development of new houses on a field next to the Church, that a timber framed settlement had existed there and that this dated back to around 1100 A.D. - not Iong after the Battle of Hastings! A well used path was found leading from the settlement to the site where St. Peter's now stands.

What style of Church may have stood on the site at that time, we do not know.

What we do know is that, in 1327, a Ralph Lord Bassett was licensed by the King to discharge a debt by building a church at Drayton.

The tower of the present Church formed part of the endowed Chapel built by Ralph Lord Bassett but there is good evidence to suggest that his Chapel was built on the site of a previous Church.

To describe the Church built by Ralph Lord Bassett as a Chapel perhaps creates a vision of something less grand than it really was because historical documents describe it as being "a beautiful and rich specimen of Gothic Architecture, consisting of a lofty nave and chancel forming one handsome room 100ft by 44ft with very tall stained-glass windows at each end."  There were no pillars or arches - instead the roof was "supported on flying buttresses in the same way as in Westminster Hall".

However grand this building, it apparently fell into neglected disrepair and during a violent storm in the winter of 1792, its leaden roof was completely destroyed. By this time Sir Robert Peel and his family were established in Drayton Manor and what remained of the old Church, with the exception of part of the tower, was taken down and re-built on a much smaller and plainer scale.

It was at this much smaller and plainer Church that the body of the famous Sir Robert Peel was entombed in 1850 and it was in his memory that, 3 years later, the building was enlarged and improved by his family. Later again, in 1875, the Peels made further changes including stained glass windows, internal furniture and organ, transforming the building into St. Peter's almost as it stands today.

Although no major rebuilding work has been undertaken since the Peels left Drayton Manor, a succession of generations have maintained the fine old building, a major task being the restoration of the Church clock - a project which took 3 years with painstaking attention to the materials and detail of the old construction.