Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church of 12th, 14th and 15th-century date with late 19th-century additions, restored in 1880. It is built of squared sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings, with Welsh slate and tiled roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, three-bay nave, two-bay chancel, south porch and vestry. The west tower dates to the late 15th century and features an embattled parapet with two stages separated by a string course. It has a chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses with offsets. The upper stage contains two-light segmental-headed openings to each cardinal face, while the lower stage has a pair of small central chamfered square-headed openings set high up on the north and south elevations. The west window has two cinquefoil-headed lights set beneath a flat 2-centred head, with a pyramidical tiled roof and weathercock.

The nave's north elevation has three windows: a pair of 2-light cinquefoiled and traceried windows with labels and 2-centred heads to left and right, and a central window with two cinquefoiled lights and four restored trefoil-headed tracery lights with a flat segmental main arch. A weathered buttress stands to the left of centre. A 14th-century north doorway with a 2-centred head and deeply moulded jambs with pyramidical stops stands at the right-hand side. The east verge has a gable cross. The south side of the nave contains a 2-light cinquefoiled and traceried window with label and 2-centred head to the right, and a centre window of three trefoiled lights with a large area of glazed tracery enclosed by three sets of cinquefoiled cusps forming a large trefoil.

The vestry is of late 19th-century date. Its east side has a 2-light ogeed and traceried window with label and 2-centred head, while the north side has a semi-circular headed doorway.

The chancel has an east window of four lights with quatre-foiled reticulated tracery, label and 2-centred head. The two south and one north windows are similar to the outer windows of the north side of the nave. A blocked priest's door lies to the left of centre. The eastern verge and gable cross are present.

The south porch is mainly of late 19th-century date but contains earlier elements. It features two bays of trusses with ties carrying raking struts. The sides are open in their upper halves with plank-and-muntin panelling to the lower halves. The south doorway is of 12th-century date with a round head and continuous roll-moulded inner order; the outer order is supported on later corbels above square jambs.

The interior has open trussed rafter roofs, perhaps of 14th-century date and partly restored to both chancel and nave. The chancel arch is 2-centred and double chamfered. The chancel contains a 14th-century cinquefoil-headed piscina with octofoiled drain. A 14th-century floor slab commemorates Sir Andrew Herl and his wife Joan, with cement or marble inlaid figures and cinquefoiled tabernacles: one figure in armour with feet on a lion, the other in a long robe.

An early 17th-century oak chair is present with a blind arch on its back panel containing the initials "C P", acanthus decoration and turned legs. The east window contains 14th-century stained glass fragments in the tracery, including a crucifixion and two angels. The main narrative lights are of late 19th-century date and dedicated to Maria Louisa, daughter of R Bent and wife of Rev J C Crasett, Vicar, with partial restoration of the chancel. The main inscription beneath the four lights reads: "SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME: BLESSED ARE THE POOR FOR THEIRS: IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: I WILL BE THOU CLEAN". The east window on the south side dates to 1908 and depicts St Andrew and St Peter.

Wall monuments include on the north side a large monument to Edmund Patteshall (died 1790) in brown, grey and white marble with a bas-relief figure in an oval medallion. On the south side is a monument to Mary Berrow (died 1775) and one to the south side of the east window dating to the late 17th century with illegible inscription in a square panel with foliage border and cherub-head, probably for Richard Grumor. Another nearby on the south wall has similar design with an illegible oval panel. Several monuments for members of the Berrow family stand on the south wall. The north wall has a marble plaque for Richard Watkin (died 1789) by Finch of Hereford and a brass plaque for Charles Crasett (died 1898 in Paris and buried in cimetière de Courbevoie). A wall monument to Elizabeth Hunt (died 1719) stands on the north wall. On the east wall to the south of the chancel arch is a monument to John Patteshall (died 1766). Opposite the south door is a marble memorial to Sarah Jennings (died 1836) by Jennings, Hereford, with a bas-relief of a dove, harp and tree. Two aedicule wall monuments for Mary Burrell and Arnold Burrell (died 1815 and 1787 respectively) stand to the west of the south door.

An oak harmonium of late 19th-century date by Estey Organ Co, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA, is present. An early 20th-century oak chancel screen has a deeply undercut frieze, panelled roof to the entrance and cresting above. The nave contains an early 17th-century oak part-hexagonal pulpit with blind arches, strapwork panels and coupled Doric columns at angles supporting an entablature. A lectern, probably of late 19th-century date, is of oak and was given by Emily Bent for her father Rowland and her brother. The font is of late 19th-century date with an octagonal base carrying four detached marble columns and a central drum; it has a bulbous foliated bowl with nodding trefoils.

The north-east window contains stained glass for Rev P M Symonds (1868) depicting The Resurrection and Ascension. The opposite window is for Eliza Bent (1908). The north-west window depicts St David and is for Col Henry Evan Patteshall (1948). The central window on the north side depicts Hope and is for Elizabeth Symonds (died 1855) and her sister.

A war memorial in the form of a plaque commemorates eight of the parish who died in 1914–19 and two in 1939–45. Against the west wall is a 14th-century coffin lid with a long incised foliated cross rising from a circular motif.

The tower doorway has a moulded 2-centred arch in a square head. The bases of both sets of jambs have pyramidical stops. Above the door is a blocked opening with a segmental head. Within the tower is a late 17th-century chair with twisted legs and stretchers and a woven open back panel.

The Patteshall family occupied Allensmore Court.