Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A Grade I listed parish church with a medieval core and substantial post-Reformation additions. The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south chapel, and north vestry, constructed of red sandstone ashlar with white stone dressings and a brown tile roof behind a parapet.

The five-stage west tower, attributed to Lady Wilbraham circa 1701, features diagonal buttresses of four tiers on its bottom stage. The entrance is marked by a door with an arched head, keystone, and bolection roll surround. Windows are two-light with trefoil heads on the first and third levels, and single windows elsewhere. The tower is topped with a battlemented parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

The nave displays provincial Baroque character, originally of four-and-a-half bays but now reduced to two visible bays due to the chapel and vestry encroaching on the east half. Giant pilaster strips divide the façade, rising from a moulded plinth through a pulvinated frieze to a cornice and blocking course. Tall round-arched windows punctuate each bay, with keystone heads and moulded cills. The east end retains 14th-century work, including a three-light pointed window with reticulated tracery and a Dutch gable parapet above. The chapel and vestry flanking the east half feature two-one-two-light windows in Byzantine style with labels over them. A priest's door is positioned to the left.

The interior nave comprises two bays with pointed arches springing from squat circular columns with moulded capitals. An unmoulded pointed arch spans the west end of the nave. Some 12th-century carved stones are embedded in the south wall of the tower. The ceiling features a cove to a wide boarded soffit with a central barrel vault and exposed trusses, with coffered ceilings elsewhere.

Notable interior fittings include an octagonal timber pulpit of circa 1701 with carved panels and a tester. The font by George Edmund Street, circa 1869, is circular with engaged marble columns at its base. An early 18th-century wrought-iron communion rail with a central coat of arms is attributed to Bakewell. A 19th-century oak lectern with spiral stand and cinquefoil fretted sides sits in the nave, alongside a 19th-century arcaded timber screen to the south chapel.

Stained glass includes an east window by Hardman circa 1876, incorporating some 14th-century panels, a chapel window by Kempe circa 1895, and a 17th-century Netherlandish window in the north-west nave.

The church contains numerous monuments. In the sanctuary are painted wooden effigies attributed to Sir William Wilson, representing Sir Hamo de Weston (died 1189) and Sir Hugh de Weston, both in arch recesses with 18th-century inscriptions. Baroque aedicules flank the east end, with Corinthian columns, inscription tablets, broken segmental pediments, and coats of arms in cartouches. Additional wall tablets in the sanctuary display naive Baroque ornamentation with fruit, cherubs, and coats of arms. Two aedicular wall tablets in the nave commemorate Lady Newport (1709 and 1725) and Richard Newport, with marble and slate construction, Corinthian pilasters, and broken cornices bearing flaming urns. A painted stone Arts and Crafts memorial to Richard Bridgeman (died 1917) stands immediately to the north.

The Bridgeman Chapel contains further commemorative monuments: a marble memorial to the Countess of Bradford (died 1897) by J. Taylor with a bas-relief reclining figure; a monument to the Earl of Bradford (died 1825) by Hollins with a marble putto and torch sarcophagus; a Greek Revival marble monument to the Earl of Bradford (died 1865); a marble relief by Hollino to the Countess of Bradford (died 1842) showing a reclining figure with angels above; and a marble relief by Rossi to the Earl of Bradford (died 1800) depicting a seated girl against a segmental pediment. A painted hatchment is displayed in the tower.

The church underwent restoration by George Gilbert Street circa 1869. An arcaded vestry and family chapel with pews were added by Ewan Christian in 1876–1877.