Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This parish church at Kirkby-cum-Osgodby dates from the early 13th century, with significant additions and alterations spanning the early 14th century, 15th century, 1790, and restoration campaigns in 1891, 1900, and 1923. The building is constructed from roughly coursed ironstone rubble, squared coursed limestone and ironstone, with slate and lead roofs.

The church comprises a western tower, nave, and chancel. The three-stage tower is built in roughly coursed ironstone rubble with a plinth and two plain string courses. It features a 15th-century plain embattled parapet with two weathered corner chutes below. Corner buttresses exist only to the first stage. All faces of the tower display early 13th-century paired belfry lights with mid-wall shafts topped by projecting carved heads on central imposts and pointed arches. The west end has a single early 13th-century lancet window to the first stage, heavily restored.

The nave is constructed in squared ironstone and limestone rubble with a slate roof. The north side features a short 1790 segmental-headed window at high level designed to light a former gallery, together with two semi-circular headed tall 1790 windows. The south side has fenestration matching the north side except for plain surrounds with carved heads at impost level. A plain stone-surrounded south door has an inserted 19th-century segmental head. A fragment of an early 13th-century grave slab is built into the nave wall.

The chancel is built in ironstone coursed rubble with a lead roof. The north side contains an early 14th-century two-light window with Y tracery. The east end has an early 14th-century three-light window with Y tracery. The south side features one stepped buttress, a three-light 20th-century window in 17th-century style, and a similar two-light window. An early 13th-century decorated grave slab with circular cross motif is built into this wall.

The interior presents plain plastered walls decorated with beaded and plaited plaster moulding running above the wainscotting and around the windows. The wainscotting combines both panelled and boarded work. The plaster ceiling features ornamental rosettes at the lighting points. The early 13th-century tower arch has double chamfers and octagonal responds. There is no chancel arch; instead, flat reeded strips mark the chancel, which is also set at a slight angle to the nave. The chancel roof is a 15th-century king post roof with one remaining corbel head from an earlier roof structure.

The chancel contains a trefoil-headed piscina at the east end, and on the north side an early 13th-century double piscina with octagonal shaft, one quatrefoil stoup, and one circular stoup.

The church contains significant late medieval monuments. In the chancel stand two tomb chests dedicated to John and Margaret Wildbore. On the north side, in front of the piscina, lies a late 14th-century effigy of a lady in sunken relief, her head resting on a cushion with two angels either side beneath an ogee arch, with a small dog at her feet. The tomb base is decorated with shields and heraldic emblems, with a Latin inscription around the top. The south side displays a late 14th-century knight in high relief in perfect condition, clad in full armour and bearing a rebus of a wild boar on his middle. The tomb chest has similar design to the lady's, with the other side set against the south wall to reveal the full inscription.

The font is 18th-century, comprising a plain circular bowl on a bulbous pedestal. At the west end of the nave hangs a Georgian Royal Coat of Arms.