Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a minster church of cruciform plan dating to approximately 1180–90. In the 15th century the church was extended by one bay to the west and the west tower was constructed. The late 12th-century nave arcade and crossing are particularly fine, as are the 15th-century roof, pews, misericords and screen.

The church is built of rubble and pebblestone with flint and clunch, with the interior stonework of clunch. Restoration work has been carried out in Ketton stone, particularly to door and window openings.

The west tower dates to the early 15th century and comprises four stages on a double splayed plinth. It features a band of blind quatrefoil flushwork and is surmounted by a stepped and embattled parapet with crocketed finials at the corners and to the centre, a frieze of flushwork, and a cornice with mask and other ornament. Four-stage diagonal buttressing is employed except at the south-east corner, which has a newel staircase. The west doorway is in a two-centred arch of two wave-moulded orders in a square head with quatrefoils to the spandrels. The west window comprises four cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in a two-centred arch.

The roof to the original late 12th-century nave was raised when the clerestorey was added, though at the east end part of the original roof remains visible. Each side of the clerestorey has a string course with rosettes above five windows of three cinquefoil lights, each in four-centred heads.

The south aisle and porch are 14th-century, though the window and door openings are much restored. The south transept is late 14th-century with a rebuilt 15th-century gable end wall of Barnack stone with octagonal pinnacles at the corners surmounted by grotesques. A plinth and string-course continue from the south transept to the chancel. The transept has a restored four-light window. The south side of the chancel contains one 14th-century window of two cinquefoil lights with a foiled head in a two-centred arch and two other restored windows. The jamb of a 12th-century south doorway with a round-headed arch is visible. The large 14th-century east window comprises five cinquefoil lights with flowing tracery and has been restored.

The north aisle and transept are similar to the south, except for a 14th-century north vestry with two original windows and a 15th-century north chapel between the north aisle and north vestry. The north porch is 15th-century and consists of two bays. It has an embattled parapet with a chequerboard pattern frieze of clunch and flint flushwork with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. The plinth is splayed and in two stages and features a similar frieze of flushwork. A small niche sits above a two-centred archway with hollow and roll moulding. The inner archway is 14th-century, two-centred with hollow and roll moulding and with a string-course carried over the archway as a label.

Interior

Except for the early 15th-century west tower and west bay of the nave arcade, nearly the whole church dates to approximately 1180–90. The original nave arcade is in four bays with two-centred arches of two unmoulded orders on alternating round and octagonal columns with scallop capitals.

The roof is a fine 15th-century work featuring tie beams on jackposts with moulded braces, with angels and other figures carved to the soffits of the intermediate principal rafters.

The arches at the crossing are similar to those of the nave arcade and are carried on half-round responds to the piers, with the capitals carved with foliate ornament. The crossing arch has bands of dogtooth, merlon and other ornament of 1180–90.

A 15th-century archway connects the chancel and north chapel. A 13th-century lancet window, now blocked, exists between the north vestry and chancel. In the chancel there are traces of 14th-century wall painting on the north wall, probably of a saint, and on either side of the east window two niches with figures.

In the south wall is a triple sedilia dating to the 14th-century with cusped ogee arches in square heads with tracery to spandrels flanked by crocketed pinnacles. The piscina is in similar style. In the south transept is a double piscina, 14th-century, of clunch with hollow and roll moulding to two two-centred arches. In the north transept is a fine 14th-century tomb recess with cusping to an ogee arch with running foliate ornament, flanked by crocketed pinnacles, and a piscina to the right hand with trefoil cusping to a two-centred arch.

A wall monument in the north chapel commemorates Edward Bernes, Esquire and Dorothy, his wife, dated 1598.

The screen between the north transept and north chapel is 15th-century and in three bays with cusping to ogee heads and vertical tracery, part restored. The door between the north vestry and chancel is 15th-century with planks and cover strips retaining the original ironwork.

In the nave, many of the pew ends contain fine original carving of the 15th-century, and the misericords, now at the west end of the nave, are also 15th-century.