Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This church is built in ashlar red sandstone with a Welsh slate roof and comprises a five-bay nave and aisles under separate roofs, a two-bay chancel, a south porch, and a five-stage west tower.

The building is a mixture of periods. The nave and south aisle date to the later 14th century, while the tower and north aisle are late 15th century work. The chancel was rebuilt in the mid-18th century. The church underwent renovations in the mid-18th century and several times in the 19th century, with a further restoration by F P Oakley in 1908.

The south front presents a great mixture of styles. The projecting gabled south porch has a broad four-centred arched doorway, heavily moulded with raised imposts. The aisle bays are divided by buttresses and the aisle has a moulded plinth. To the left of the porch is a two-light window with trefoil head and pierced quatrefoil. To the right is a Venetian window with leaded glazing and interacting tracery, with two scratch dials below. The fourth bay has a Victorian window, while the fifth bay has a rectangular two-light cyma-moulded window with flowing tracery and label mould. The three-light aisle east window features reticulated tracery. The chancel has two two-light Victorian windows and a semi-circular headed priest's door with key block, plus a three-light Victorian Decorated window.

By contrast, the north aisle is all of one period and displays exuberant Perpendicular work. It has a moulded plinth, enriched buttresses, and a band with gargoyles and embattled parapets above the windows. The windows are broad four and five-light examples with three-centred arched heads, the tracery restored except for the east window, with label moulds on fabulous animal and human corbels. The fourth bay has a four-centred arched doorway.

The tower has a moulded plinth, heavy clasping pilasters, and moulded bands at each stage. A band of quatrefoils sits below the gargoyles and embattled parapet. The four-centred arched west door is recessed behind a moulded and rebated doorcase crowned by a crocketted ogee head on angel corbels. Empty niches to either side have vaulted and crocketted heads. The tower features a restored four-light west window, a niche and corbels, a Queen Victoria Jubilee clock, and a pair of two-light louvred bell openings in successive stages.

Interior

Entry to the church is through the west door beneath a tall tower arch. The south aisle has a five-bay arcade on octagonal piers with 19th-century carved leaf capitals and label moulds on carved head corbels. At the east end is a Tudor arch with cusped reveals, perhaps formerly containing a monument. The north aisle has a taller double-chamfered arcade on slender octagonal piers with plain capitals. A squint window connects the north aisle chapel to the chancel.

The roof is an ornate false hammerbeam structure with carved console brackets and pendants. All arrises are dentilated. The tiebeam at the east end bears an inscription: "THIS ROVFE WAS MADE ANNO DOMINI 1650 RAPHE WRIGHT, JOHN BRUEN, CHURCH WARDINS CHARLS BOOVTH WILL VENABLES CAPINTRS."

The south aisle retains a 14th-century wooden screen with trefoil-headed arcade and pierced quatrefoils. The south aisle also preserves a late 14th-century wagon roof of closely set pairs of arch-braced rafters, used as a type illustration in J Harris and J Lever's Illustrated Glossary of Architecture (1966).

The chancel contains 19th-century fittings except for a Flemish reredos of around 1500 and a copper memorial tablet to Henry Hardware (died 1584). A Perpendicular-style octagonal font with a 19th-century lead bowl is dated 1330.