Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church largely dating from the 15th century, with evidence of earlier 14th-century fabric incorporated into its construction. It was restored and a new aisle was added in 1877. The church is built of limestone ashlar and coarse small grade rubble, with leaded roofs and Swithland slate to the chancel.

It comprises a three-stage west tower, a nave with two aisles, a clerestory, and a chancel. The west tower has angle buttresses, paired foiled lights to the bell chamber, a quatrefoil frieze, and gargoyles to the embattled parapet. The south aisle is a Victorian rebuild using small rubble. A half-timbered porch with pargetting and leaded lights, containing a plain chamfered arched doorway, is attached to the south side. Windows are predominantly in an Early English style, consisting of paired lancets with unfoiled circles above, with tiny two-light clerestory windows. The chancel is constructed of small rubble or cobble and is medieval, though extensively modified. The north aisle has a buttressed facade of coursed and squared rubble, and medieval fabric with inserts in a deeply cut Early French style – paired trefoils with quatrefoils above.

Inside, the west tower has a double chamfered arch, with the inner chamfer springing from high fluted corbels. The South arcade is mid-14th century with low octagonal shafts and wide double chamfered arches with moulded stops to the outer chamfer. The North arcade is an exact replica from 1877. The nave roof is 15th century, low pitched, with moulded tie beams, a ridge piece, and purlings, featuring a foliate boss in the centre of each tie-beam. The chancel arch, created in 1877, is tripartite, with deeply moulded arches on slender pink octagonal shafts carrying a stylised low-relief foliage design. A handsome openwork wood pulpit, dated 1879, features reticulated tracery in the panels. Two Gothic wall memorial tablets in black and white marble commemorate Catherine Martha-Clarke (died 1818) and John Clarke (died 1858), made by Barfield of Leicester. The church contains stained glass from 1877, including an east window depicting the Good Shepherd in a traditional medieval style with jewelled colours, a south window with highly coloured abstract patterns, and a series of saints in the north aisle windows. South aisle windows feature a simple yellow fleur-de-lis pattern. Pews are contemporary with the restoration and are in a vernacular Gothic style. A 13th-century font is a plain rough round basin.