Church Of St Andrew

CHURCH OF ST ANDREW

Parish church consecrated in 1877, designed by T.H. Wyatt for the Barneby family. The building is constructed of coursed snecked rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings, and is roofed in banded clay tiles, plain and fishscale, with swept eaves and moulded apex stones to the gables. The plan comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, southeast transept, and chancel.

EXTERIOR

The slightly tapering tower has a pyramidal roof with weathervane and overhanging eaves. The belfry is lit by paired louvred lights with a sillband, with single lights to the tower chamber at the west and north elevations. The west face is partly obscured by a clockface and contains a two-light main window with quatrefoil tracery and a dedication plaque below. North and south lancets light the tower. The plinth is battered, and gilded clock faces appear on the west and south elevations. The west window has associated north and south lancets.

At the southeast, a polygonal tower stair with its own pyramidal roof is lit by lancets and is enriched with plentiful ashlar quoins and a quatrefoil band.

The south porch is timber-framed on a stone plinth, with a steep-pitched roof with moulded bargeboards and swept eaves. An open pointed arch supports a truss. Open arcading flanks the sides, with exposed rafters, benches, and a flag floor within. The main south entrance has a hoodmould with foliage stops and double doors with massive hinges.

The south nave has two sets of paired lights with foliage enrichment to the spandrel between. The south transept has a steep-pitched roof with similar widely-spaced lights surmounted by a roundel with trefoil above. In the west angle with the nave is a porch entrance through an angled doorway with shouldered architrave and a flat roof with high parapet. Three roof pitches merge above. In the east angle with the chancel are steps down to a boiler room with an adjacent chimney.

The chancel has a three-light east window with Geometric tracery and a stepped sillband continuing around the returns. Three lancets light the north chancel wall. The north nave has a rather short three-light east window lighting the pulpit area, with roundel lights and Geometric tracery, and two pairs of lancets similar to the south elevation. Stepped buttresses separate the chancel from the nave and the nave from the tower. The chancel is only very slightly lower than the nave.

Windows throughout are mainly small and pointed-arched, most with trefoil-headed and Geometric tracery.

INTERIOR

The four-bay nave has scissor trusses and collars with decorative roundels in the apex, supported on tiered corbels at wallplate level. The white plaster ceiling and rendered walls contrast with the stonework. Four oil lamps, converted to electricity, hang from chains.

The chancel has three similar trusses, additionally enriched with St Andrew's cross. The tower ceiling is coffered, and adjacent are the fittings for the six bells presented by W.H. Barneby.

The floor is of encaustic tiles, more elaborate towards the east. A modest octagonal stone font with quatrefoils stands at the west; this is reputedly from the former church.

Eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century marble monumental plaques to local families, re-sited from the old church, are displayed adjacent to the south and southeast doors.

An elaborate pulpit of contrasting marbles stands at the northeast nave on a stone base with architectural and figurative sculpture. Both the chancel and tower arches are moulded and pointed, supported on corbelled responds.

The low chancel screen comprises Geometric arcading in marble on a wider stone plinth decorated on the south side with recessed quatrefoils. A brass lectern stands adjacent.

The organ, filling the south transept behind a two-bay arcade, was built by W. Sweetland of Bath in 1880 and was renovated in 1992 by Nicholson and Company of Malvern.

Steps lead up to the sanctuary and altar, behind which stands a full-width reredos comprising three heavily moulded trefoil-headed arches heavily crocketed with finials and angels in the spandrels, executed in contrasting marbles. Two kneeling angel figures flank a central cross. On the north and south sides are decorative stone panels incorporating roundels with profile or three-quarter relief busts of the four evangelists set within quatrefoil frames.

A series of stained glass windows mostly dating from the 1880s onwards follow an ecclesiological order. The west window, by Charles Gibbs, depicts the Resurrection; the east window shows the Crucifixion. The nave windows are episodes from the Life of Christ. The south chancel contains a series of Virtues by Mayer and Company, created in honour of Queen Victoria's Jubilee of 1887.

HISTORY

In 1875 the parish of Bredenbury was united with that of Wacton, and a decision was taken to build a new church on a new site to replace the very small existing medieval church at Bredenbury and the ruined church at Wacton. Land was donated by William Henry Barneby of nearby Bredenbury Court, whose family also commissioned many of the fine interior furnishings. The foundation stone was laid in 1876.

Architect T.H. Wyatt was also responsible for Humber Church and nearby Bredenbury Court. Some building materials from the original churches were apparently re-used in the new construction.

W.H. Barneby presented the bells in 1881 and the pulpit in 1882. The reredos was erected around 1880 in memory of Evelyn Mary Barneby (1873–1876). The church clock was installed in his memory in 1917.

The stained glass in the west window is by Charles Gibbs. The north chancel windows are by Mayer and Company, dating to 1887 in honour of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The east and other windows, including the south window (Suffer the Little Children) in memory of Edmund Barneby (born and died 1869), were given by W.H. Barneby, as was the organ of 1880.