Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A church substantially rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries, with a 15th-century tower and porch. The chancel was restored and an outer north aisle added by George Gilbert Scott in 1865.

The exterior is built of regular coursed sandstone, with the tower in ashlar. The chancel and porch are roofed in old plain tiles; the chancel has a 19th-century coped gable parapet with moulded kneelers. The nave and aisles have lead roofs, with the nave displaying a 19th-century moulded embattled parapet, while the aisles have moulded parapets.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, north inner and outer aisles, west tower, and south porch. The chancel is 2 bays, the nave 4 bays. Splayed plinths run throughout. The chancel has diagonal buttresses of 2 offsets and a 3-light east window with cusped intersecting tracery. Host windows have hood moulds, and a blocked chamfered north doorway is visible. The north and south sides have straight-headed eastern windows of 2 trefoiled lights with moulded spandrels, and western lancets.

The nave has a plinth to part of the south wall only, with 4 buttresses of 2 offsets each. A central open timber porch with moulded timbers and 19th-century tracery contains stone benches and a queen strut roof. The moulded doorway inside has a hood mould and a 19th-century door with decorative ironwork. Straight-headed Perpendicular 2-light windows flank the porch above, while eastern and western windows have cusped Y-tracery. Restored pinnacles sit at the angles.

The north aisle has a gableted diagonal east buttress, now partly embedded in the outer aisle, with a lean-to roof. Its 3-light east window displays reticulated tracery, and a renewed north-west window has cusped Y-tracery. The outer aisle is largely similar, with a buttress bearing carved heads and a shallow-pitched roof with pinnacles at the angles. A moulded north-west doorway and a 2-light straight-headed north-eastern window are present; the 2-light west window has reticulated tracery.

The Perpendicular tower is of 2 stages. It has splayed and high moulded plinths, with diagonal buttresses of 4 offsets rising into crocketed pinnacles, and a moulded embattled parapet. The first stage has a simple moulded Tudor-arch west doorway in a chamfered straight-headed surround with sunk spandrels, with a 19th-century plank door bearing decorative ironwork. A renewed 3-light window above has deep splayed jambs. The north-east angle contains a shallow stair projection, and a splayed course separates the stages. The second stage has 2-light openings with transoms and deep splayed jambs; the south side displays a painted clockface.

Interior

The chancel is plastered and contains a south-east piscina. The north wall has a stone shelf on a half-octagonal colonnette, with some 19th-century stencil work around the east window. A boarded barrel roof features chamfered arched braces with carved wood angel corbels and iron ties. Only part of the responds and springing of the chancel arch remain.

The nave has a piscina in the east jamb of the south-east window, with trefoiled ogee openings to east and north. A 4-bay Perpendicular north arcade has 2 chamfered orders, octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals, and a continuous hood mould. The first bay has only a corbel to the east. The third and fourth bays are separated by a broader pier with 2 half-octagons and a chamfered south respond, with a carved head between the second and third bays. The tower arch has 2 segmental-pointed orders. A 19th-century Perpendicular roof covers the nave.

The north aisle has an arch of 2 continuous chamfered orders dividing off the west bay, with an east window having a hood mould. A 3-bay 19th-century aisle arcade is similar to the nave arcade, but includes one round pier between the second and third bays and carved heads between each arch. The outer aisle has a chamfered, moulded and cusped crown post roof.

Fittings are almost entirely of 1865. The chancel contains encaustic tiles and painted metal roundels on the east wall, with arcaded altar rails. A low screen and gates incorporate some 15th-century traceried panels. An octagonal moulded and traceried wood pulpit and a heavily ornamented octagonal stone font are present. The north aisle screen has plate tracery openings. A fine set of 13 three-branch candle-stands and 2 eight-branch candelabra of painted metal and brass, possibly by Skidmore of Coventry, are displayed.

The stained glass includes an east window of 1865 by Clayton and Bell and a north aisle east window of mid-19th century by Powell. Other 19th-century glass appears in the nave and chancel.