St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, is a redundant medieval church in the care of English Heritage. As a result of a major programme of research carried out between 1978 and 2007, it is now the most intensively studied parish church in the UK. Excavations between 1978 and 1984 investigated most of the interior of the building, as well as a swathe of churchyard around its exterior. At the same time, a stone-by-stone record and detailed archaeological study of the fabric and furnishings of the church was undertaken, continuing down to 2007. The twin aims of the project were to understand the architectural history and setting of this complex, multi-period building (Volume 1, Parts 1 and 2) and to recover a substantial sample of the population for palaeopathological study (Volume 2). An extensive programme of historical and topographical research also took place in order to set the archaeological evidence firmly in context.
The nearby substantial church of St Mary, which was once a chapel dependent on St Peter's, has also been studied, as have the furnishings, fittings and funerary monuments in both buildings. The topography of the small market town and port of Barton has been researched and its Saxon and Norman defensive earthworks have been traced. All aspects of settlement, from the Roman period onwards, have been studied and the vicissitudes of the Christian community in this typical English country town reconstructed through the history, archaeology and architecture of its two magnificent churches.