Church Of St. Andrew

Church of St. Andrew

Parish church dating primarily from the 14th century, with significant late 15th-century additions and restoration work undertaken around 1868 and 1891. Built in coursed limestone and ironstone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings. The roofs are slate with decorative ridge tiles, stone coping to the east chancel gable, and a battlemented east nave gable crowned with a cross finial.

The church comprises a north-west tower with spire, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a chancel with a small projecting organ chamber on its north side.

The mid-14th-century north-west tower features a moulded plinth and string courses with four-stage buttresses topped with gabled upper stages. A polygonal stair turret containing four slit stair lights is built into the south-west buttress. The west face displays a pointed window with chamfered surround, two cusped ogee-headed lights, a daggered quatrefoil, and a hood mould. Slit lights pierce the west, north and south sides above, with clocks positioned on the west and east sides. A moulded string course marks the bell stage, where pointed openings on all four sides contain double-chamfered surrounds, two cusped ogee-headed lights, daggered quatrefoils and hood moulds. The eaves are moulded and decorated with two large gargoyles on each side and smaller sculptural motifs. Battlements and four ornate corner pinnacles crown the tower, from which spring cusped flyers supporting an octagonal recessed spire with three tiers of ornate lucarnes on alternating sides and a finial.

The west front south of the tower dates to circa 1300 and features a moulded plinth and string courses with a large pointed window containing four ogee-headed lights and reticulated tracery under a hood mould, with a shallow battlemented gable above.

The west front of the south aisle, also circa 1300, has a moulded plinth and string course with a pointed window displaying mid-14th-century tracery of three cusped pointed lights, a large quatrefoil with four long concave-sided barbs, and a hood mould, topped by battlements.

The early 14th-century north aisle features a moulded plinth and string courses with a pointed west doorway having a richly moulded continuous surround, hood mould and plank door. To the east are two windows with pointed heads, three cusped pointed lights, geometric tracery (restored in the 19th century) and hood moulds. Moulded eaves and later 14th-century battlements run above. The east end of the north aisle has a pointed head with two trefoil-headed lights, three trefoils above and a hood mould, together with moulded eaves and battlements. The gabled roof line of the original chancel is visible immediately to the left.

A 15th-century clerestory on the north side comprises six triangular-headed windows, each with three cusped lights (those flanking the central pointed light having triangular heads) and hood moulds, with moulded eaves, battlements and corner pinnacles above.

The 1891 chancel includes a plinth and moulded string course, with a gabled, slightly projecting organ chamber on the north side featuring a small pierced quatrefoil. A single lancet window lights the east end, which is further enhanced by three-stage angle buttresses and a moulded string course. A pointed window with three cusped ogee-headed lights, panel tracery and hood mould, together with a quatrefoil in the gable, occupies the east face.

The south side of the chancel has two pointed windows separated by a three-stage buttress, each containing two pointed cusped lights, panel tracery and hood moulds. A pointed doorway immediately to the left of the buttress features a continuous moulded surround, hood mould and plank door.

The east end of the early 14th-century south aisle displays mid-14th-century tracery with a pointed east window containing three cusped pointed lights, a large quatrefoil with four long concave-sided barbs and a hood mould, along with moulded eaves and battlements. The south side of the aisle houses two similar pointed windows with matching 14th-century tracery.

A 14th-century gabled porch with angle buttresses features single two-light mullion windows in its east and west sides, with a pointed south doorway having a continuous double-chamfered surround. The interior contains flanking stone benches and an early 14th-century south doorway with a richly moulded head including filleted rolls, jambs with two filleted rolls and rich moulding between, hood mould and double plank doors. A small rectangular niche is set above. The tie beam porch roof includes a beam inscribed "1679 THST". A pointed window to the west of the porch contains three lancets and a hood mould.

A 15th-century clerestory above the porch comprises eight triangular-headed windows, each with three cusped lights (those flanking the central pointed light having triangular heads) and hood moulds.

Mid-14th-century tower arches to the north aisle and nave feature triple-chamfered pointed heads with hood moulds, triple rolled jambs with central fillets and moulded capitals. Inside the tower is an octopartite ribbed vault with a central oculus.

The arcade consists of an early 14th-century three-bay north arcade and four-bay south arcade with double-chamfered pointed heads, hood moulds and heads in spandrels in the north aisle. The piers are quatrefoil with four filleted shafts and moulded capitals. An early 14th-century chancel arch features a pointed double-chamfered head with hood mould and three roll-moulded jambs incorporating a filleted central roll.

The interior furnishings and fittings include a 19th-century piscina in the south wall of the chancel with a rectangular head filled with cusped tracery. A 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina in the south aisle of the nave has a pointed aumbry above with a hinged door and fragmentary Lord's Prayer board. A 19th-century reredos, altar rail, pews, lectern and pulpit are present. A 15th-century octagonal font with tall octagonal pedestal and plain basin is topped by a hood with an angel dated 1942. Medieval fragments of stained glass survive in the south-east window of the south aisle, including a haloed figure in a yellow robe. The roofs date primarily to the 15th century in the north aisle and the 19th century elsewhere, though five 15th-century roof corbels remain in the nave.

The church contains numerous monuments spanning the 18th to 19th centuries, including two grey and white plaques to John Tavers (died 1802) and John Essington (died 1719); a white marble sepulchre-shaped monument to Thomas Strathan (died 1846); an ornate white cartouche with ribbons to Robert Kelham (died 1752) with a Latin inscription; a white and grey marble monument to John Saywell (died 1777); a white marble monument on a black ground with an urn and draperies to Mary Wayet (died 1831); a black oval plaque containing a white marble oval to John Greenham (died 1793); a white marble monument streaked with grey with a coat of arms on the apron to Josephius Burton (died 1761); three white and grey plaques with triangular heads to Thomas Buckberry (died 1828), Mary Buckberry (died 1809) and Elizabeth Mason (died 1810); a black and white marble monument to Robert Nicholls (died 1848); two diamond-shaped plaques, one with a lion head at the apex, to James Arminger (date illegible) and Edmund Dodsworth (died 1858); an oval monument between them to Reverend Brownlow Toller (died 1794); a grey and white marble monument to Rebecca Thomas (died 1838); a white marble monument on a black field to William Westmorland (died 1828); a white and grey monument to William Westmorland (died 1819); and a white marble monument to Philippa Foulkes (died 1840). Several early 19th-century monuments recording charitable bequests are also present.