Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A parish church of cruciform plan in Isleham, dedicated in 1331, replacing an earlier church on the site. Traces of the medieval predecessor remain in the stonework of the north-east corner of the nave and in the 13th-century Y-tracery in the north chapel. Much of the interior appearance dates from the 15th century, when the roofs of the nave, aisles and clerestorey were constructed. The west tower was rebuilt in 1863 by G.E. Street, replacing one that had collapsed, and the walls were refaced in 1893. The church is notable for its particularly fine clerestorey and roofs of 1495, and contains significant monuments and brasses to the Bernard and Peyton families.

The building is constructed of flint and pebblestone with Barnack stone dressings; the interior walls are of clunch. The embattled three-stage west tower has a pyramidal roof. The embattled nave features a 15th-century clerestorey with five windows on each side, each of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in four-centred heads. The south aisle, south porch and south chapel all date from 1331 and stand on a continuous splayed sill. The fenestration, originally of clunch, has been restored. The south porch interior is arranged in two bays with a two-bayed wall arcade of two central arches on attached columns. The inner archway to the south doorway is two-centred with hollow and roll mouldings of the 14th century. The door itself is early 18th-century with raised and fielded panelling and original brasswork. The north wall of the chancel contains an original window of clunch with two trefoil lights and reticulated tracery in a two-centred head. The north chapel has two windows, restored, showing Y-tracery from the earlier church. Above the north doorway are marks indicating a gable, possibly for a lost north porch.

The interior has north and south arcades of 1331, built of clunch, with five bays featuring two-centred arches of two moulded orders supported on quatrefoil columns with subsidiary shafts at the angles. The clerestorey and roof were constructed in 1495 for Crystofer Peyton. The nave roof comprises five bays of Queen post construction with subsidiary posts. The cambered, moulded tie beams, each bearing a winged demi-angel, are supported on wall posts braced to the ties to form four-centred arches. The intermediate bays feature angels holding emblems of the Passion, with smaller angels bearing shields at the soffits. The roof is embattled with an ornate cornice bearing masks and foliate bosses, with blind tracery filling the spandrels of the arches. The north and south aisles and both transepts have roofs of around 1500. The chancel arch matches those of the nave arcade. The floor is early 18th-century.

The south wall of the chancel retains a 14th-century piscina with trefoil cusping and a sedilia, restored in the 19th century. The font is 13th-century clunch, octagonal in form with carved decoration to each side, the soffit and stem. A fine 16th-century brass lectern, discovered in the fen during the 19th century, takes the form of an eagle with outstretched wings as a book rest, mounted on a sphere supported by lions sejant. A 15th-century desk in the chancel has a sloping bookrest and poppy head finials; its front features a blind arcade of ogee arches with sub-cusped tracery. Original stalls remain in the chancel with misericords representing church and state. Some 15th-century pew ends survive in the north aisle. The communion rail, with its jewelled work finials and balusters, is a fine example of early 17th-century work.

The church contains numerous monuments of note. In the north transept stands a monument to Barbara Themilthorpe (1619), carved in painted clunch with Corinthian columns and entablature framing a figure of a child, and another to Roger Peachey of the late 17th century in black marble within a white stone frame. The church preserves many fine monuments and brasses to members of the Bernard and Peyton families, including a 15th-century Easter Sepulchre, 13th and 14th-century wall tombs in the north and south chapels, an early 15th-century chest tomb in the south chapel, and late 16th and early 17th-century canopied tombs also in the south chapel.