Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a parish church of 12th and 13th century date, with substantial alterations made in the 14th and 15th centuries and after a fire in 1591. The building was restored between 1876 and 1879 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It is constructed of random coursed sandstone and ashlar with old tile roofs. The church is cruciform in plan, with a central tower, a four-bay chancel featuring a south chapel and north vestry, and a four-bay nave with aisles and a south porch.

The tower dates to the late 13th century and rises in three stages with set backs. A stair turret projects to the north west, and the tower is finished with a battlemented parapet and pyramidal roof with finial. The west front of the nave displays a large three-light window and a doorway beneath with moulded surround, featuring one order of shafts with bell capitals and a moulded arch with hoodmould.

The south aisle incorporates a 15th-century rebuilding marked by a battlemented parapet. It contains a two-light window with plate tracery to the left and three three-light windows to the right, all with panelled tracery and hoodmoulds. The south porch is two storeys tall with a gable front. The first floor has a two-light transomed window with quatrefoil plate tracery, while the entrance is a moulded trefoiled arch with two orders of shafts, bell capitals, and hoodmould. A gabled stair turret projects to the left. The porch interior is vaulted with a quadripartite vault featuring moulded ribs, a central carved boss, and corner shafts with bell capitals; a simply moulded south doorway is also present.

The north aisle contains paired two-light windows with quatrefoil plate tracery and a boarded door in the second bay from the west with hoodmould. The south transept is of 12th-century origin but was given a 15th-century battlemented parapet. Two 15th-century two-light windows to the south have panelled tracery and hoodmoulds. The central feature is a blocked 12th-century doorway with two orders of shafts with shaft rings and carved foliated capitals. The north transept dates to the 15th century and features a battlemented parapet and projecting stair turret to the north west. It contains two- and three-light windows with panelled tracery and hoodmoulds, and a chamfered arched north doorway.

The chancel dates to the 12th century and circa 1360. On the north side are two central 12th-century round-arched windows with nook shafts, hoodmoulds, and corbelled eaves above, a three-light 16th-century window to the right, and a three-light 14th-century window to the left. The south side features a three-light 14th-century window to the right, a 14th-century cusped-arched tomb recess beneath containing a female effigy, and an 18th-century wall tablet to the left. The east end is dominated by a large five-light window with reticulated trefoil tracery and hoodmould. The south chapel is two bays with three-light windows featuring reticulated tracery, a central south door with string course carried over as hoodmould, and a carved figure in the wall above. The vestry is dated 1899/SA on cast iron rainwater heads and was designed by W.D Caröe in a Tudor Gothic style. It has a battlemented parapet, depressed-arched three-light windows, and a boarded door to the east.

Interior

The nave arcade features octagonal piers with moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches with hoodmoulds. A first-floor porch room projects into the second aisle bay from the west with a lower arcade arch beneath a quadripartite vault with moulded ribs and central carved boss. The nave roof, dating to circa 1591, is a seven-bay double hammer-beam roof with carved scroll brackets. Tall double-chamfered crossing arches dominate the crossing. The south transept contains a chamfered arch into the south aisle and a restored 12th-century arch into the south chancel chapel with nook shaft. A former external 12th-century window to the west has splayed reveals, nook shafts, and hoodmould. An aumbry survives to the north and the remains of a piscina to the south; the roof is 16th century and flat. The north transept has a chamfered arch into the north aisle and also a 16th-century flat roof. The chancel features a former 12th-century chancel arch to the east of the crossing with square abacia and carved capitals. Four-bay sedilia and piscina with open trefoiled arches are present. The roof, dating to circa 1591, is a four-bay double hammer-beam roof with carved scroll brackets. The south (Moreton) chapel contains a two-bay 14th-century north arcade with octagonal piers, moulded capitals, and arches, with remains of re-used 13th-century sedilia in the south wall; the roof is probably 16th-century hammer-beam.

Fittings include a 17th-century octagonal wooden pulpit with 19th-century enrichments, a 19th-century octagonal stone font, and a hatchment in the south transept. The stained glass comprises a west window of 1848–52, an east window by Hardman of circa 1867, and two windows in the south transept by Powell's of 1863.

Monuments

Notable monuments include Thomas Forster of 1526, with a tomb recess in the north chancel wall with two piers supporting a cornice, depressed arch with carved spandrels, and effigy of a priest; Oliver Brigges of 1596, a chest tomb in the south chapel with recumbent effigy; Humphrey Brigges and wife of 1626, a chest tomb in the south chapel with two recumbent effigies and two small kneeling figures at the feet of the wife; Magdalen Brigges of 1698, a tablet on the south chancel wall with bust in circular niche with putti above; Revd. Moreton Esq. of 1746, a tablet in the south chapel; and Mary Bagott of 1746, a tablet in the south chapel.

A stone in the churchyard wall near the gate to Meet is inscribed "Ope sela Gulielmi watford, Viri plurimum/Awici Tandum Resurg /1691" but is not listed.