St Andrew'S Church

St Andrew's Church, Weston

This is a parish church of the 13th century, substantially restored in 1825, 1860 by George Gilbert Scott, and 1872 by William Butterfield.

The building is constructed of ashlar with tooled 19th-century masonry to the chancel and tile roofs, except for a copper roof on the south aisle. It comprises an aisled nave and chancel, a west tower, a south porch, and a north-east vestry.

The broad two-stage early 13th-century tower is the most prominent feature, with moulded strings, massive clasping buttresses, and an internal south-west turret. The west window is a large lancet with double-chamfered surround, with smaller lancets on the north and south sides. The upper stage features tripartite arcading with blind outer arches and inner arches that are subdivided and fitted with louvres. The parapet and octagonal stone spire with lucarnes were added in the 1830s. The remainder of the exterior is almost entirely of the 19th century. The nave has three-bay aisles beneath lean-to roofs, with two-light and three-light Decorated windows, and paired and triple clerestorey windows with trefoil heads. The tall buttressed porch contains a re-used 13th-century trefoil-headed entrance and a nave doorway with nook shafts. The re-faced chancel has aisles beneath lean-to roofs, with re-used two-light Decorated windows and a blind south doorway. The east wall has triple lancets separated by deep buttresses, with a small quatrefoil window in the gable. The gabled north-east vestry has diagonal buttresses.

Inside, the wide triple-chamfered 13th-century tower arch stands on polygonal responds with nook shafts and carved capitals with simple foliage. The stair turret doorway is steeply pointed. The chancel arch is also 13th-century, on clustered shafts. The nave arcades have piers of quatrefoil section with moulded arches. The chancel arcades have octagonal piers with narrow hollow mouldings. The 1840s shallow-pitched chancel roof is panelled with moulded ribs. The east window has shafted rere arches. Butterfield's nave roof has king posts strengthened by curved struts, with plasterwork behind the principal rafters divided into panels by moulded ribs. The walls are unplastered except for the spandrels of the nave and chancel. Above the chancel arch is polychromatic diaperwork and a stone cross in relief. The floor is laid with coloured tiles and raised wood floors below the benches, with encaustic tiles in the sanctuary.

The 19th-century font has a round bowl with a foliage frieze around the rim, said to be based on the original. A polygonal wooden pulpit on a stone base has carved angels in each facet. Bench ends of 1860 have poppyheads and arm rests to the central aisle but are otherwise square-headed. The choir stalls of 1872 have shouldered ends and frontals with open arcading. The arcaded communion rails are possibly also of 1872. Several windows contain stained glass, including a fine Nativity east window by Gibbs (circa 1870s), north and south chancel windows by William Wailes, and a Plant family memorial window by Clayton & Bell. The church has two bells dating from around 1400.

The west tower is early 13th-century, and the arcades and chancel arch date from only slightly later. The chancel arcades appear to date from the erection of aisles in 1825, although it has been argued that the piers are 13th-century but were altered in the 19th century. The chancel was re-faced and re-roofed in the 1840s. The original nave north aisle was demolished in 1685, but the arcade was preserved. A new aisle was built in 1825 but was replaced in 1860 by George Gilbert Scott. The south aisle was rebuilt and widened in 1872 by William Butterfield, who also heightened the nave by adding a clerestorey with his trademark polychrome interior decoration, added a north vestry, and rebuilt the porch using old masonry.