Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Bishop Auckland

This is a parish church that was formerly collegiate, reconstituted in 1293 by Bishop Bek. The building dates from the 13th century, with the top stage of the tower added in the 15th century and some 16th-century alterations. The church underwent substantial 19th-century restoration, with an organ chamber added in 1881.

The church is constructed in sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, notably including snecked stone in the south transept's south bay. The roof is hidden except for a stone-flagged porch roof.

The plan consists of a chancel with a north organ chamber and vestry, an aisled nave with transepts and south porch, and a west tower flanked by a choir vestry in the south aisle.

Externally, the building features clasping buttresses to the chancel, transepts, aisles, porch and tower. Sill strings and flowered head stops ornament the dripmoulds. Most windows display Y-tracery, with cusped windows in the nave clerestory. The chancel has a five-light east window under a pointed arch with bar tracery and a low-pitched gable. The south side shows alternating single lancets and two-light windows in four bays defined by stepped coped buttresses. The south transept has a three-light renewed south window under a battlemented parapet, and a 16th-century two-light window at its west. The two-storey south porch features a pointed arch with drip mould and a two-light window above in a double-chamfered surround, with a sundial in the gable peak. The porch returns have high buttresses and plain chamfered lights, with a square stair turret at the west. The south aisle shows two bays west of the porch with a central chimney and west-end lancet. The north aisle has an old door in a recessed chamfered pointed arch. The four-stage tower has a shallow west buttress flanked by tall lancets; the first stage lights have shouldered heads; the third stage has round-headed two-light windows with shafts and a plain spandrel recessed under a round arch with corbel table above. Two-light belfry openings feature tall pointed arches under a battlemented parapet. A south-west polygonal stair turret with slit lights has stone coping set against the belfry stage.

The porch interior has side stone benches and quadripartite vaults with filleted ribs. The upper storey, reached by interior stairs, contains truncated principal roof trusses. The old ledged boarded door from porch to church is set in nookshafts (restored) with a pointed arched surround without capitals under a head-stopped drip mould. A recessed holy water stoup (basin lost) sits to the right of the door.

The main church interior has rubble walls with ashlar dressings and a low-pitched roof on beams resting on stone corbels. The high chancel arch, restored in 1864, sits on corbels decorated with nailhead and stiff-leaf ornament. Five-bay arcades with alternating shafted and octagonal piers extend to the transept arches. The chancel contains a floor-level aumbry on the north and a double piscina with fluted basins on the south. Two sedilia with roll-moulded pointed arches on filleted shafts sit on the south, with a third having a cusped head; a blocked priest's door is also present. The north wall shows a partly surviving blocked roll-moulded arch, while the south has arcaded rear arches to windows. A 19th-century floor of tiles covers the floor. The north transept has a cusped piscina; the south transept has a pointed arch over a piscina adjacent to the chancel arch. Aisle windows have sill strings and rear arches with restored pointed arches to the north and straighter pointed arches to the south; clerestory rear arches are also present. A blocked pointed arch over the south-west vestry door is visible. The tower arch features triple-chamfered moulding on moulded capitals and polygonal shafts, with a blocked door above the arch. A ledged boarded door, probably medieval, leads to the tower stair.

Fittings include a 1939 stone font and 19th-century pulpit. The altar and carved and painted wood reredos on a red marble plinth date to the 19th century. High-quality 15th-century chancel stalls feature carved foliage on misericords, blind tracery panels and poppyheads, with a possibly contemporary cusped Communion rail. At the west end stands a late 8th or early 9th-century cross, reconstructed in 1931, which displays inhabited vine-scroll on its sides, a Crucifixion on one face with an inscription reading "AND.." (probably for Andreas), and other figures. The north aisle contains medieval grave covers and sculptural fragments, including a c1340 wood effigy of a knight and a 14th-century stone effigy of a lady. A large brass from c1380 commemorates a priest, and numerous wall monuments from the 18th and 19th centuries are present throughout the church.

The stained glass is largely of high quality from the 19th century: the chancel shows work in the style of Kemp; the north transept contains glass to Joseph Reay (died 1821); the south transept and south aisle show work by Barnett of Newcastle (c1870). Windows in both aisles date to c1932 and bear the mark of the Wippell Mowbray Church Furnishing Company. The church is said to be the largest parish church in County Durham.