Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church with origins in the early 12th century, substantially rebuilt during the 13th to early 14th centuries, with 15th-century clerestory windows and north porch. The building underwent restoration in 1898. It is constructed of coursed ironstone rubble with Collyweston slate roofs covering the chancel and chapel, and lead roofs to the remainder.

The building comprises a narrow west tower, nave, aisles to north and south, north and south porches, a south chapel, and chancel. The west tower features a lancet window with restored hoodmould in its west wall, a small slit window, and a bell-chamber dating to 1694 with large two-light traceried openings, a quatrefoil frieze, and battlements. The nave contains a 15th-century clerestory with three bays of cusped two-light windows with flat heads. Similar windows appear in the north aisle, the left one with a Tudor hoodmould and the right partly blocked by a stair to the north porch. The north door has an early 14th-century moulded arch and is adjoined by a fine two-storey porch of late 15th-century date, featuring a parapet, missing finials, small angle buttresses, and a four-centred arch of two chamfered orders with hoodmould. The inner order rests on half-shafts with embattled capitals. Above the arch is an oriel window with cusped lights and embattled parapet. The south aisle contains one arched window with three untraceried lights and two tall altered windows with 16th to 17th-century moulded mullions and flat heads, the western one with a Tudor hoodmould. The south door is set in a moulded arch. The south porch has been heavily rebuilt in the 20th century. The south chapel has a moulded string raised over a moulded south door with steep two-centred arch, a 13th-century two-light window with geometric tracery, and a fine three-light east window with Decorated tracery. The tall three-light east window of the chancel is similar but with different tracery. An altered three-light window with flat head and moulded mullions appears in the north wall of the chancel.

Interior features include a high two-centred arch to the tower of two chamfered orders resting on carved head corbels. The nave has three-bay arcades: the south arcade dates to the late 12th to early 13th century with double-chamfered arches on circular piers and moulded capitals, three of which have a narrow band of nailhead decoration. The north arcade is late 13th to 14th century, featuring quatrefoil piers. Above the arcades are traces of 16th-century wall-paintings with texts and heraldic cartouches of the twelve tribes of Israel. The nave roof dates to the 15th century and has been restored, featuring moulded beams and carved brackets to the ridge. The south aisle has moulded cambered tie-beams; the north aisle has been re-roofed. A four-centred doorway provides access to the porch stairs.

The chancel arch is double-chamfered with early 12th-century shafts on each jamb, richly carved with beasts, winged figures, and foliage. The left shaft has a similar capital; the right shaft includes a figure of a man ringing a bell. An early 12th-century string with saw-tooth moulding appears in the north wall of the chancel. The chancel also contains an aumbry, a blocked arch in the south-east corner, an ogee window to the chapel, and 14th-century wall-paintings of St Andrew and the Madonna enthroned on the east wall. The chapel has an arch to the south aisle partly blocked by a low wall, a four-centred door to the chancel, and late 13th-century wall-paintings of St Christopher and St Edmund on the south wall. The chapel roof dates to 1574 and features arch-braced collars.

Furnishings include a fine 15th-century screen complete with rood canopy on the nave side, 16th-century bench-ends with poppyheads, one bench with a moulded back-rail, a wooden trestle for carrying coffins inscribed "Iob Swayen fecit 1694", a disused stone font, fragments of old glass in the east window, a 19th-century pulpit and font, and stained glass of 1904.

Monuments include an alabaster tomb chest in the chancel with recumbent effigies of Kenelm Digby (died 1590) and his wife Anne, with mourners and corner balusters. A monument in the south chapel commemorates Everard Digby (circa 1540), featuring a mutilated effigy of a knight on a chest with blind tracery panels, shields, and corner balusters, with a shallow wall recess behind bearing a four-centred arch, finials, and balusters. A slab in the south aisle bears an incised figure of Jacqueta Digby, dated 1496, disfigured by graffiti.