Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church, now declared redundant (circa 1978). The building dates primarily from the 14th and 15th centuries but underwent substantial late 18th-century rebuilding. Between the 1770s and 1780s, William and Thomas Lumby of Lincoln oversaw major works including the addition of new north and south chapels, partial rebuilding of the aisles, chancel and clerestory, and plaster ceilings executed 1775–7. The top two stages of the tower were added in 1785. The south chapel was subsequently rebuilt as a mausoleum for the Dukes of St Albans in the early 19th century. A major restoration in 1888 by W W Goodhand of Redbourne included removal of the gallery, re-seating, and the addition of a new south porch. Around 1985, a vestry door was inserted and east side-windows were removed; restoration works were underway at the time of survey.

The church is constructed of squared limestone and coursed rubble with limestone ashlar dressings; the east side of the vestry is rendered. The roofs are lead to the aisles, nave and chancel, with Welsh slates to the mausoleum, vestry and porch. The plan comprises a west tower with a rectangular south-east staircase projection and west entrance, a three-bay aisled nave with south porch, a single-bay chancel with an organ chamber and vestry adjoining to the north, and the St Albans chapel and mausoleum adjoining to the south. Side-alternate quoins are used throughout, those to the mausoleum being raised while the remainder are flush.

The four-stage tower sits on a moulded plinth with stepped-in stages. The tall first stage features a blocked west door with a four-centred moulded arch beneath foiled spandrels and a square-headed hood-mould; a four-centred arch with a three-light cinquefoiled west window with hood-mould; a square-headed two-light cinquefoiled west window with hood-mould; and lighting slits to north and south. The rectangular stair turret to the first stage has three lighting-slits and contains an inscribed square ashlar sundial with the remains of an iron gnomon. A moulded string course separates the first and second stages. The second stage displays pointed two-light trefoiled windows with a moulded string course. The third stage features a large clockface to the west and a plain string course. The fourth stage has pointed two-light trefoiled belfry openings with hood-moulds, a moulded string course, and a coped embattled parapet.

The aisles contain pointed two-light trefoiled windows, one to the south having missing tracery at the time of survey. A carved finial is set into the south aisle's south wall. The clerestory windows are square-headed two-light trefoiled openings; sections of former columns are incorporated into the north and south walls. The chancel's east window is a four-centred arch, boarded-up at survey. The vestry has two pointed two-light trefoiled north windows and a pointed chamfered south door to the mausoleum with hood-mould. A moulded string course and coped embattled parapets with crocketed pinnacles run throughout (some pinnacles were missing at survey). The south porch has a chamfered plinth, buttresses, and a pointed moulded arch beneath a hood-mould; the pointed chamfered inner arch has a blocked pointed window with hood-mould above it.

Internally, the arcades comprise pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with chamfered bases and moulded capitals; the south piers are slightly taller. Moulded corbelled responds support the arcades. The tower and chancel arches are of two orders with hollow chamfers dying into the jambs; the chancel arch has a hood-mould. Within the tower, a four-centred arch leads to the staircase, and the deeply-splayed west doorway is found below. Pairs of corbels on the north and south walls probably supported a former gallery. The second stage of the tower contains the timber base for a former octagonal spire.

The south aisle retains evidence of various blocked openings: a round-headed door to the east, a former lancet to the west, circular windows to east and west, and a pointed south window. A 10th or 11th-century carved interlace stone is reset in the west wall. The north aisle has a pointed arch opening to the organ chamber. The aisle windows feature stuccoed brick arches and ashlar jambs.

The chancel contains a broad crocketed ogee-arched niche to the north with sub-cusping and a carved shield finial; this overlooks a fine incised black marble graveslab to Gerald Sothill (died 1410) with an inscribed border and figure of a knight flanked by angels, reset in 1985. A deeply-chamfered ogee arch leads to the organ chamber with plain moulded capitals and a hood-mould bearing a foliate finial. A small square-headed recess is located to the south. An architrave and sill string course frame the east window.

The nave features a fine three-bay quadripartite vaulted plaster ceiling with foliate bosses and plain moulded timber corbels. The chancel has a fine elliptical barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling with Gothick panelling and a trefoiled corbelled cornice. The north aisle ceiling is also plastered. Floors are of flagstones with black insets.

A notable series of marble wall tablets is preserved in the chancel. On the south side: tablets to William Carter (died 1752), with a carved urn bearing relief of men planting a tree, and to Roger Carter (died 1774), with a carved base and fine relief depicting a ship and oriental landscape with pagoda—both attributed to Richard Hayward, 1778–9; a tablet to Charlotte and Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall of 1782 by Hayward, featuring an obelisk and relief of a mourning figure with an urn; and a tablet to William, 8th Duke of St Albans, and his wife Maria, of circa 1825. On the north side: a tablet to William, 9th Duke of St Albans, of 1851 by J C Lough, with figures of a mourning mother and children in a Gothic ashlar surround; a tablet to Harriot, Duchess of St Albans, of 1838 by Chantry, with a draped altar bearing arms and coronet in relief; and a tablet to Charlotte, Lady Beauclerk, of circa 1825. A gravestone in the tower to Thomas Waterhouse of 1723 bears a rustic inscription and ornament.

An exceptional painted east window of circa 1840 by William Collins, a copy of Francis Danby's "The Opening of the Sixth Seal", was boarded-up at the time of survey. A series of 12 stained-glass windows depicting the Apostles, also of circa 1840 by William Collins, and a fine carved baluster-shaped font of 1775 by Richard Hayward, were in store at survey.

The mausoleum contains two tiers of 19th-century tombs of the St Albans family with inscribed marble tablets.

Documentary evidence shows that work in the 1770s, recorded in the Carter Estate accounts, included stuccoing the chancel and aisles by a plasterer called Kibblewhite in 1775–7. Drawings by C Nattes from 1795 are held in the Banks Collection at Lincoln City Library.