Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a parish church of medieval origin, dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in the 19th century, with a porch, aisles and vestry added in 1870. The chancel was rebuilt in 1984. The building is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with dressed stone, featuring ashlar dressings, a chamfered plinth, moulded eaves, and coped gables with crosses. The roofs are of lead and slate. A single gable stack with gabled cap serves the building.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with clerestorey, north and south aisles, chancel, vestry, and south porch.

The unbuttressed west tower has two stages. It features a chamfered string course, eaves band and coped parapet with the remains of eight pinnacles. The first stage has round-headed windows to the south and west, including a 19th-century double lancet with Y tracery and hood mould. The second stage has four round-headed double openings. The clerestorey has a moulded band and eaves with gargoyles and a coped parapet. On each side are six double chamfered lancets.

The north aisle comprises three bays with a clasping buttress to the west. The west end has a 13th-century style double lancet with geometrical tracery, hood mould and stops. The north side has three groups of three single lancets.

The south aisle also comprises three bays, with a gabled corner buttress to the east and a clasping buttress to the west. The east end has a geometrical double lancet with hood mould and stops, and the west end has a similar lancet. To the right of the south porch are two groups of three single lancets.

The chancel's east end features an early 15th-century transomed ogee-headed double lancet with panel tracery and hood mould. The south side has two bays, with a doorway and, to its right, a plain double lancet in a square-headed reveal. The north side has two bays with a single lancet and, to its right, a double lancet. The east end has a round window containing four quatrefoils.

The gabled vestry has a buttress at its north-west corner. The gabled south porch has two clasping buttresses and a keel-moulded doorway with shafts and hood mould with mask stops. The nave west end has a string course and a door with segmental head.

Internally, the north arcade dates to the 13th century and comprises three bays with round piers, moulded bases, capitals and imposts. The arches are double-chamfered and rebated. The south arcade dates to the 14th century and comprises three bays with octagonal piers and responds with moulded capitals, the eastern capital decorated with ball ornaments. There are two chamfered arches, with the western arch chamfered and rebated.

The north and south aisles have lean-to roofs. The north aisle east end has a chamfered archway with a 20th-century screen. The south aisle east end has a memorial stained glass window dating to around 1921. The south side has a 13th-century piscina on a mask corbel and two windows with stained glass roundels, and a stained glass memorial window of 1928 at the west end.

The chancel has a chamfered round arch dating to 1870. The north side has an organ opening with a 20th-century screen and, to its right, a late 14th-century double lancet with square-headed reveal. The east end has a stained glass window by Kempe. The south side has an aumbry with a 20th-century door. The roof is of principal rafter construction with arch braces and ashlar pieces.

Fittings include a semi-circular arcaded ashlar pulpit, an octagonal font on a moulded base (19th century), a 20th-century oak lectern, 19th-century benches with shaped ends, mid-20th-century stalls and desks, an early 18th-century communion table with turned legs, and an 18th-century panel-back armchair.

Memorials include several incised cross slabs set into the walls, a small figure of a priest with Latin inscription, and full-size male and female effigies dating to around 1300, the male figure dressed as a forester. Classical wall tablets date to 1768, 1797 and 1804. Brasses are recorded at 1719, 1800 and 1915. Benefactions boards date to 1737 and 1851.