Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Timberland

Parish church dating from the 12th to 14th centuries, with significant later alterations. The nave was rebuilt in 1792 and the chancel in 1838. The building was restored in 1887 by Goddards of Lincoln. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar and red brick dressings, with slate roofs and ashlar coped gables. Flush ashlar quoins are employed throughout.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with aisles and clerestory, south porch, north west vestry and north east organ chamber, and chancel.

The west tower rises in three stages and is notable for its very massive buttresses, irregularly placed with set-offs. The west face displays a short off-centre buttress with two memorial tablets commemorating the First and Second World Wars. A plank door, reached by four steps, has a glazing bar overlight and segment head with keystone. Above sits a 19th-century clock in a moulded surround, followed by a band. All four faces of the third stage feature two-light bell openings with Y-tracery in shallow pointed arches, double chamfered surrounds, hoodmoulds and label stops. The stage is topped by a band with a gargoyle and battlements with corner pinnacles.

The south face of the tower has a 20th-century breeze-block lean-to boiler house and a full-height central buttress with a small fixed leaded light to its left. The north face is blank, with a 19th-century lean-to vestry below containing a single two-light chamfered mullion window.

The north aisle features a blocked pointed arched doorway to the right, then two pointed arched windows to the left with chamfered surrounds—the first with flowing tracery and the second with reticulated tracery. The clerestory contains three similar two-light windows on both north and south, each with flowing tracery in shallow arched chamfered surrounds.

The organ chamber's east wall has a single pointed chamfered lancet. The 1838 chancel has a brick plinth and a gable topped by a cross finial. The three-light east window, in a pointed chamfered surround, displays cusped tracery. The chancel's south wall shows a pointed doorway with a 19th-century studded door and an unusual stone fanlight featuring rows of round and pointed arches flanked by head stops. Above is a plaque inscribed 'T CLIFTON 1838'. Either side are single pointed two-light windows with geometric tracery. The south aisle contains two pointed windows in chamfered surrounds—the left with flowing tracery, the right with reticulated tracery. The gabled south porch has a pointed doorway with chamfered surround and plank door. The inner doorway is similar, fitted with a 20th-century door.

Interior

The interior features two-bay nave arcades with wide pointed double chamfered arches. The south arcade has a quatrefoil pier; the north arcade a square pier with demi-shafts. Single shaft responds on both sides have moulded bases and plain capitals. The tower arch comprises a wide round chamfered outer arch and a crude pointed double chamfered inner arch, with shafts having moulded bases and plain capitals. The chancel arch has a double chamfered pointed arch with three-quarter shaft responds.

The nave has a flat 18th-century plaster ceiling with two elliptical palmette rosettes and a moulded cornice. The chancel contains a 19th-century wooden roof and a heavily restored 11th-century pillar piscina with four-cluster shaft and scallop capitals.

Fittings include an ornate 19th-century octagonal stone font, an early 20th-century wooden screen, pulpit, reredos and altar, and 19th-century choir stalls. The chancel displays five slate wall tablets to the Clifton family, and a wooden carved wall tablet of 1908 by C G Wheat is positioned in the south aisle.