Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Evesbatch

A parish church of medieval origin, restored in 1877 by Thomas Nicholson of Hereford, with possibly a 17th-century phase of construction.

The building is constructed of coursed red sandstone rubble with freestone dressings and quoins, covered with a slate roof. It follows a rectangular plan comprising a nave with a slightly lower and narrower chancel, a west belfry, a south porch, and a north vestry.

The exterior presents a low and heavy appearance of masonry and slate with sparse fenestration, offset by timber elements in the belfry and porch. The north and south nave walls contain two-light windows with Decorated tracery beneath semi-circular labels; the south-east window is unrestored and served as the model for the others. The south doorway features a pointed arch made from two large stone blocks, one carved with crude quatrefoil and trefoil ornament, indicating it is reused medieval material. The doorway opens into a 19th-century timber-framed porch that is open-sided on a dwarf stone wall. The nave is braced by three 19th-century buttresses. The west wall is entirely a 19th-century rebuild with three buttresses and a cusped window. The timber-framed belfry has boarded panels incorporating quatrefoil sound holes and a pyramidal roof on swept eaves. The chancel displays an ogee-headed south window and an east window of three cusped round-headed lights beneath a super arch, possibly a faithful restoration of a 17th-century window.

Inside, the nave roof of closely-spaced rafters strengthened by tie beams represents late medieval or 17th-century work, enhanced with 19th-century brattishing. The belfry is supported on tall timber posts on stone bases, braced by a cusped arch. The division between nave and chancel is marked by a wooden chancel screen added in 1877, comprising three main divisions with delicate tracery beneath an earlier tie beam and superimposed by stepped cusped arcading in the roof space. The chancel features an open wagon roof of 1877 and contains a cusped piscina and a larger cinquefoil-headed aumbry. The walls are plastered. The nave floor is stone-paved, with raised wooden floors beneath the pews. Decorative and encaustic tiles are laid in the chancel.

The plain round Norman tub font has an elaborate saucer-shaped 17th-century cover with radiating leaves. Benches of the 16th century have ends with blind Gothic panels; those at the western end are copies added in 1877 to provide additional seating. The polygonal pulpit is 19th-century but may incorporate earlier panels. The 19th-century choir stalls have moulded ends. Two large wall monuments stand against the west wall. The monument to Margaret Dobyns (died 1658 in childbirth) features a portrait bust of a woman with a swaddled child within a round arch flanked by allegorical figures and reclining putti on the slopes of a segmental pediment with achievement—a notable example of provincial artisan mannerism. A more rustic monument to Catherine Dobyns (died 1710 aged 12) comprises a tablet, enriched scrolls, an apron, and putti on the slopes of an open pediment. The nave floor contains grave slabs of Isaac Ailway (died 1668) and Robert Dobyns (died 1713). The east window, of 1877, is an early work by C.E. Kempe, depicting Christ in Glory. The west window shows St Andrew.

The font indicates the Norman origin of the church, though the earliest architectural features are the nave roof and south-east window, which have been interpreted as medieval but might date to the 17th century. The church underwent thorough restoration in 1877 by Thomas Nicholson (1823–95), a Hereford architect. He inserted most of the present windows, the chancel roof, and constructed the present bellcote and porch.