Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church with nave walls of uncertain date; the north aisle, south-east chapel and chancel date from the early 13th century. The chapel was extended into a full aisle in the 14th century, and the aisle, clerestory and roofs were refenestrated probably around 1398 when the Holgrave Chantry was founded. The church underwent restoration with rebuilding of the east end and addition of a south porch in 1887.

The church is built in squared stone of varying types. The nave and aisles have flat lead roofs, the porch has stone slates, and the chancel has red tiles.

The south aisle features stepped buttresses and four windows, each with two trefoiled-headed lights with panel tracery under a square head and hoodmould. The south door is an old boarded and studded door with 17th-century hinges, set in a moulded arch within a gabled porch with double-chamfered outer arch. The east window has three lights under a pointed arch. The north aisle has similar fenestration except that the westernmost window is a 19th-century copy. A round-arched door with continuous roll moulding has its head cut in two megalithic blocks. The clerestory contains four small trefoiled ogee lights on both north and south sides, with moulded parapets and a low-pitched roof. The west end has three buttresses and two small ogee lights; a broad central buttress carries a heavy bell cote, possibly post-medieval, with three openings, one of which re-uses the head of a 14th-century two-light window, and a pyramid cap.

The four-bay chancel has a chamfered plinth and stepped buttresses. It contains lancet windows, with the stepped eastern triplet having a sill string and linked hoodmould. A trefoiled low-side window is on the south, and a renewed trefoiled priest's door with nailhead decoration is present. A north door with a triangular monolithic head is probably a 16th or 17th-century insertion. The east gable is coped with a vesica light and St Andrew's Cross finial, with a high-pitched 19th-century roof.

The interior has a four-bay north arcade with steeply-pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal columns with holdwater bases and moulded capitals, and triple-shafted responds with stiff-leaf foliage. The arch chamfers and hoodmoulds have variously carved stops. The three-bay south arcade has wider double-chamfered arches on rectangular sections of walling chamfered at the angles to form piers. A double-chamfered chancel arch sits on semi-octagonal responds, which are asymmetric as the south respond has been re-set at least once.

A trefoiled piscina is located in the south aisle. The north aisle has a trefoiled recess on the north wall and a recess for a rood stair at the north-east corner. A small squint is situated on the south side of the chancel arch, alongside a corbel with nailhead decoration and Bertram orle.

The chancel is plastered with a chamfered sill string, and the eastern lancets have shafted jambs. Triple sedilia and a round-arched piscina with filleted roll moulding and carved brackets are present. A recess adjacent to the low-side shows remains of wall painting and a lintel from an earlier squint with stiff-leaf foliage.

Fifteenth-century low-pitched roofs throughout are fitted with arch braces and wall posts on stone corbels, featuring bosses with angels holding shields. Remains of contemporary glass in the aisle windows include scenes of the Annunciation, Coronation of the Virgin, and the Holgrave arms. An octagonal font dates to the 14th or 15th century. A section of pre-Conquest cross is set in the north wall of the chancel. Various 12th and 13th-century architectural fragments are re-set as a screen to the vestry at the west end of the north aisle. Two medieval cross slabs are in the floor of the north aisle, with others re-used in the fabric.

An alabaster table tomb with effigies of Ralph Lord Ogle (died 1512) and his wife Margaret is located in the south aisle. A 1612 wall tablet is in the north aisle. Jacobean altar rails are present. The chancel contains late 19th-century panelled dado and stalls, with chancel glass of the same period including a Sharp memorial window at the east end.