Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church built 1825-1829 by Thomas Rickman and H Hutchinson for the Marchioness of Downshire on a new site. Constructed in sandstone ashlar with slate roofs behind parapets. The building comprises a west tower with north and south lobbies, a four-bay aisled and clerestoried nave, and a two-bay chancel with transepts. The architecture imposes Decorated style upon an essentially Georgian plan.

Exterior

A continuous plinth runs around the building with a string course above. All windows are fitted with hoodmoulds, mostly with foliated label stops where no other detailing is specified.

The west tower rises in three stages with three strings coursing around. Angled corner buttresses with offsets mark each stage. The lowest stage contains a pointed-arched west doorway. North and south sides each have lobbies adjoining the aisles, topped by plain parapets above a moulded cornice. These lobbies have 2-light west windows and pointed-arched doorways with crocketted and finialed ogee-arched hoodmoulds in their respective north and south elevations. The second stage displays a 2-light west window with crocketted and finialed ogee-arched hoodmould. The tall belfry stage has a long central pointed archway with crocketted and finialed ogee-arched hoodmould and buttresses with offsets and pinnacles flanking each side. At the base of this archway sits a clockface with an ogee-arched and foliated head, and above it a 2-light louvred bell-chamber opening. The moulded cornice carries four decorated corbels to each elevation, surmounted by an embattled parapet set between tall corner pinnacles with gablets. A recessed spire rises above with flying buttresses to each corner pinnacle, cusped lucarnes near the base and about halfway up, a finial at its apex, and a weathervane.

The nave has four bays with embattled parapets at the west end corners. Angled buttresses with offsets mark the west end, while narrow buttresses with gablets stand between bay divisions at clerestorey level. The clerestorey contains 2-light windows throughout. Lean-to aisles have plain parapets, buttresses with offsets at bay divisions, and 3-light windows. Both aisle and clerestorey windows display varied tracery.

The chancel comprises two bays with an embattled parapet. Its east end has angled corner buttresses, a 4-light window, and a loophole in the gable apex. Transepts project from the westernmost bay, each with a plain parapet and diagonal gable end buttresses. Blocked, cusped lancets occupy each gable end with a loophole in the apex. The south transept's east elevation carries a 2-light window and doorway, both pointed-arched. The north transept's east elevation has two pointed-arched 2-light windows. A porch with pointed-arched doorway stands in the angle between the north transept and the nave.

Interior

The four-bay nave arcades rest on compound piers whose inner shafts feature moulded capitals and bases. The arches are pointed with a continuous hoodmould above. A plain pointed chancel arch with hoodmould and foliated label stops leads to the chancel, with a plain tower arch and an arch from the south aisle into the transept. Archways from the chancel into the transepts have boldly detailed crocketted and finialed ogee-arched heads; the north archway is blocked and the south opens into one transept bay only. The north transept serves as the choir vestry and the south as the Vicar's vestry.

Quadripartite plaster vaulting with foliated bosses and vault shafts on moulded corbels covers the roofs. The interior is limewashed, with vault ribs, bosses, and main archway details painted in bright colours following redecoration in the 1970s. A frieze of three round-lobed quatrefoils runs beneath the clerestorey windows. On either side of the altar are panels inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, each set within crocketted and finialed pointed arches flanked by pinnacled buttresses.

Furnishings include a panelled reredos, altar rails, pulpit, and lectern. The font was given by the Sandys family in 1888. The nave contains north, south, and west galleries with original 1826 box pews. At the east end of the south aisle stands a large box pew with a Gothic fireplace for the Sandys family. The space between the west gallery and rear box pews has been glazed to form a narthex. A Gothic cast iron stove by Robert Harden of London, made to represent a church tower, stands in the north aisle. An 18th-century parish chest is housed in the narthex.

Memorials

At the west end of the north aisle is a late 18th-century cartouche to James Tippets (died 1770) and William Wiltshire (died 1795), alongside an early 18th-century Dobey family memorial showing a woman leaning on a vase and an early 19th-century Yarrington family memorial. At the top of the south aisle is a mid-19th-century memorial to Charlotte Blundell Hill. The east end of the chancel contains three mid-19th-century, one late 19th-century, and one early 20th-century memorial to the Sandys family.

This substantial estate church by Rickman ranks among his finest works, comparable to Hampton Lucy in Warwickshire.