Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Church with a west tower dating from the 15th century and the remainder built 1768-70, possibly designed by John Carr. The building is constructed of ashlar for the tower and brick with stone dressings elsewhere, with a tiled roof.

The church comprises a 3-bay nave, 2-bay chancel, and west tower. The nave has a stone plinth and quoins, with pointed windows featuring intersecting glazing bars in stone surrounds. It is finished with a dentilled brick eaves cornice and coped gable. The lower 2-bay chancel is similarly detailed with pointed windows with intersecting lead glazing bars in stone surrounds, a dentilled brick eaves cornice, and a hipped roof. A 20th-century priest's door with a pointed fanlight glazed with intersecting bars occupies a plain stone surround. The east window displays Geometrical tracery, probably re-used.

The west tower has three stages with a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses, and string courses. The west window of two lights features Perpendicular tracery but has been altered to accommodate a double west door with Gothick panelling. The south wall displays a large sculpted figure of St Andrew within a canopied niche. A 2-light belfry opening with Perpendicular tracery sits beneath a hood-mould, and the tower is topped with a battlemented parapet fitted with 18th-century pinnacles.

The interior features a double chancel screen comprising 4 tapering quatrefoil columns and responds with Gothick capitals, supporting an entablature with a triglyph frieze containing linked circles to the metopes. The nave is fitted with a dado of raised and fielded panels, a design repeated on 19th-century pew ends. A family pew beneath the tower arch is accessed by a dog-leg stair with cut string, turned balusters, and a ramped handrail, rising to a balcony with turned balusters, cornice, handrail, and a door with raised and fielded panels and an original fastener. The balcony is supported on 2 stone quatrefoil columns and 2 timber quatrefoil pilasters, all with Gothick capitals. The nave features a moulded cornice and coved ceiling, with a moulded cornice in the chancel. Behind the family pew is a chamber with moulded plaster panels to the soffit of the tower arch, a dado, moulded cornice, and a domical vault with Gothick ribbing.

A late 12th-century tub font with intersecting round-headed arcading is reset on brick within the church.

The chancel contains several family monuments. To the left of the east window is a monument to William Strickland, dated 1663, featuring a moulded plinth on corbels enriched with acanthus supporting raised bases of Corinthian colonnettes beneath a broken pediment with putti and hatchment. Plaster decoration includes swags and ribands with an acanthus-enriched surround to the inscription tablet. To the right of the east window is a monument to Elizabeth Strickland, dated 1674, with a moulded plinth supported by putti and carrying raised bases of Corinthian colonnettes under a broken pediment with putti and hatchment. Plaster decoration features festoons, flags, and armour with a laurel-enriched surround to the inscription panel. On the north wall is a marble monument to Sir William Strickland, dated 1733, comprising a chest with Greek key frieze and skull motif beneath a fluted sarcophagus with a portrait medallion. A blank inscription panel crowned by a broken pediment, with a blank hatchment and turkey, is set against a large obelisk. On the south wall is a monument to Sir William Strickland, dated 1767, with a hollow-chamfered base to a sarcophagus with fluted cabriole legs and an inscription on a black marble obelisk with white marble volutes.

The east window contains painted glass dated 1768, by Peckitt of York.