Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church of early to mid 14th-century date with a west tower and chancel. The nave and aisles were rebuilt in the late 15th century. A vestry was added in 1849. The chancel was restored and stripped of plaster in 1889–90 by Ewan Christian, and the nave was restored at the same date by J C Traylen. The tower was restored in 1902.

The church is constructed of ironstone with pale limestone dressings, the tower built in ashlar while the remainder is semi-dressed and coursed rubble. The roofs are lead.

The west tower is of four stages with a moulded plinth and strings. It has a restored embattled parapet and set-back buttresses. A short broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes rises from the top. The bell-chamber has paired two-light traceried openings (restored), and the stage below has single trefoil-headed lancets with hoodmoulds. The west side displays a two-light window with ogee tracery and hoodmould, and a fine moulded doorway with two shafts to each jamb and flanking and central finials.

The nave features a moulded parapet and a five-bay clerestory of three-light Perpendicular windows with cusped lights and four-centred heads. The aisle windows are similar but taller and transomed. The west bays of the aisles have doorways with two-centred arches, which were blocked in 1804. The aisles have moulded plinths and parapets with off-set and gabled buttresses. A rood stair projects from the angle between the north aisle and chancel.

The chancel has a moulded plinth, sill course and eaves. It displays two bays of two-light Decorated windows with hoodmoulds and carved head stops, those on the south side having flowing tracery. A large four-light east window of the same type features reticulated tracery. The south side also has a transomed low-side window and a small door with a two-centred arch. All chancel windows have been restored. A gabled vestry projects to the north.

Interior

The tower contains a brick vault with two medieval carved head corbels. A door with a chamfered arch opens to the stair, and a blocked window with a chamfered arch faces into the nave. The tower arch is two-centred, with four moulded and chamfered orders opening to the nave. Traces of the original roof-line of the nave are visible above.

The nave has five-bay arcades with moulded arches on piers bearing moulded caps and bases. Each pier has four shafts. Labels with carved head stops run above the arches. At the east end of the nave, fragments of 15th-century wall paintings remain, including a figure of a king on the northeast pier. The roof dates from the 19th century. The aisles have restored roofs supported on carved head stone corbels. The north aisle contains a rectangular niche adjacent to the rood stair and an arched niche of a former stoup beside the blocked north door. A piscina with a hacked arch and remains of 14th-century tracery is located in the south aisle.

The chancel arch is moulded on half shafts with moulded caps. The interior of the chancel is heavily restored, with slender shafts and carved head label stops to the windows, a raised floor, and a 19th-century roof. An aumbry occupies the north wall. The south wall features a row of ogee arches over a piscina and triple sedilia. High up in each side wall are five holes for acoustic jars.

Fittings and Monuments

The font is a rectangular ironstone piece with panelled sides, a 20th-century stand, and an early 17th-century carved wooden cover. A 15th-century wooden screen features painted flowers and traces of painted saints on the lower panels, with open traceried upper panels and restored coving. Communion rails dated 1635 are remarkable in that they surround the altar on all four sides. An altar table dates from 1662. Fragments of medieval glass survive in the north window heads, and a window of 1870 occupies the east end. The 19th-century seating and pulpit remain.

Two stone coffin lids are set in the tower. Brasses in the chancel commemorate Sir Edward Watson and his wife (1520) and Helyn Hardy (1486).