Church Of Saint Andrew

The Church of Saint Andrew is an Anglican parish church that retains significant medieval fabric from the 14th century, though the majority of the building dates from 1877, designed by William Butterfield, with substantial additions made in 1895–96 by Ewan Christian to Butterfield's designs. The church is constructed from Bath stone with red Alton stone detailing, and is set under a grey slate roof.

The building is roughly rectangular on plan, with a projecting sanctuary, choir vestry, north and south porches, and towers at the west and north-east corners. It comprises a nave with inner and outer north aisles and south aisle, Lady Chapel, choir, sanctuary, vestries, and porches. The west tower is the most visibly significant surviving 14th-century element—a three-stage tower of squared and coursed limestone with rectangular slit windows, paired louvred openings to the bell chamber, and crenellations. The remainder of the church is Butterfield's work in a robust Gothic style with a continuous roof line and geometric tracery to the windows. The body of the church extends for five bays. The north elevation features a two-storey north-west porch and a tall north-east tower with bell chamber, topped by pinnacles and a spire. This 19th-century tower and spire display high-quality polychrome work using various materials and a decorative fish-scale slate roof. The north side has two aisles and a clerestory to the nave, with hierarchical windows; the ground floor has tripartite windows of paired lancets with cinquefoils. The south side has a single aisle with paired windows, each pair featuring a continuous drip mould. A large rose window sits above the organ chamber.

Internally, the former nave and north aisle from the 14th-century church have been reused as the inner and outer north aisles of Butterfield's church, connected by pointed arches carried on slender octagonal columns. The former chancel was converted to a Lady Chapel in the early 20th century. Butterfield's church proper includes a nave, south aisle, choir, sanctuary, organ chamber, and vestries, one housed in the base of the 19th-century tower. The nave arcades consist of pointed arches carried on muscular piers of banded red and cream stone with carved capitals, in a generally early English style though adapted. The interior is highly decorative, increasing in complexity and richness from west to east, culminating in a richly decorated marble and polychrome sanctuary. Structural elements are exposed stone in alternating bands of red and cream, used throughout for architectural details. The interior features elaborate stencilled ceilings, polychrome tiles to floors and some wall surfaces, and marble fittings to the east end. The sanctuary is articulated by a rich decorative scheme, preceded by a polychrome marble chancel arch springing from foliate carved capitals. An extensive stained glass scheme runs throughout the church; the east window depicting Christ in Glory and the west window are by the renowned firm Clayton and Bell. The remainder of the stained glass scheme is currently unattributed but may be by Alexander Gibbs, presenting an extensive narrative of figures from the Old and New Testaments arranged around the church. The octagonal font in polychrome marble dates from Butterfield's rebuilding. The pulpit is of oak with a traceried Gothic superstructure set on a marble base of clustered columns. The oak altar and oak and pine pews remain from Butterfield's original scheme. Doors throughout display exuberant and detailed ironwork to Butterfield's designs. The organ consists of several phases, the earliest dating from the end of the 17th century. Several memorials from the 18th and early 19th centuries are reset at the west end of the north aisle.

The medieval church of Saint Andrew, originally comprising a west tower, nave, chancel, and north aisle, had become unsafe by the 1870s. It was rebuilt by William Butterfield on a much larger footprint that incorporated the surviving medieval elements. The west tower was retained at the west end of the new church, the medieval nave and aisle became the parallel north aisles of the new building, and the former chancel became the Lady Chapel. To this core were added a new nave, choir, sanctuary, south aisle, organ chamber, and north and south porches. In 1895–96, Ewan Christian added further elements to Butterfield's designs, including two vestries and the tall north-east tower and steeple. The building has remained virtually unaltered since, except for the glassing in of a section of the outer north aisle to create a parish office and the insertion of a kitchen and lavatories at the base of the tower.