Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Anglican church of 1834, designed by Welsh of Birmingham, with alterations and additions from the early 20th century. The church was commissioned by patron William Grant and was originally erected for Presbyterian worship, which continued until 1869. It is built of regularly coursed squared gritstone and ashlar gritstone with ashlar dressings, beneath a Welsh slate roof.

The building comprises a wide nave without aisle arcades, a shallow polygonal apse to the south-east end, and a north-west tower with lean-to porches on each side. The square tower rises in two stages above a basement, with polygonal buttresses surmounted by squat pinnacles with stepped pyramidal caps. Shallow crenellated parapets link the pinnacles.

The north-west tower elevation features a tall two-light lancet with deeply chamfered reveal and Y-tracery joinery, interrupted by an ashlar panel with blind quatrefoil. A hood mould with plain stops surmounts the window head. Above is a plainer, smaller lancet with deeply chamfered reveal. The first stage of the tower terminates at a moulded string course penetrated by a diagonally-set clock face surround. The bell stage contains a tall louvred lancet of two lights, with deeply chamfered reveal, all beneath a hood mould.

The lean-to lower porches have plain shallow parapets, stepped angle buttresses, and single lancets to their end walls. Side wall entrances feature steeply-arched heads with deeply chamfered reveals, quoined surrounds, and hood moulds with shield stops. The main pointed arch-headed door has blind tracery to its middle panels and Y-tracery to the door head. A rectangular wall plaque above the door displays the Grant family coat of arms, the date 1834, and the motto "CRAIG ELACHIE".

The north-east side wall rises from a shallow chamfered plinth and contains five bays defined by stepped buttresses. The ends of the nave are defined by polygonal buttresses rising above eaves level, each with a tapering pinnacle topped by a foliage finial. Each bay contains a tall lancet window with deeply chamfered reveal and Y-traceried joinery. A plain corbel table runs below a shallow plain parapet.

The shallow pentagonal apse was added in the early 20th century, replacing the original seven-light south-east window. Each apse facet has a plain lancet.

The interior retains the original benches, now with later panelled covers to their backs. Choir stalls feature a reading desk with open arcaded fronts. An octagonal timber pulpit set on a stone stem, dating from the late 19th century, stands against the north-east wall. The altar rail is also from the late 19th century. A reredos of 1920 occupies the apse, with three late 20th-century stained glass windows including a central light depicting St Andrew.

A gallery occupies the north-west end, supported on two octagonal columns. The gallery front is panelled with a cornice and top rail, with blind arcading decoration to the panels incorporating a clock in the centre, and a lower cornice above wide-cusped blind arcading decoration. Two access staircases from the porches lead to the gallery, each with stick balusters, turned newel posts, and half-glazed doors with margin lights.

Seven wall monuments commemorate members of the Grant family, industrialists involved in calico printing at Square Street Mill, Ramsbottom.