Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church largely dating from the 14th century, with a portion of the south aisle originating in the 13th century. Key elements from the 15th century include the nave arcade, clerestory, West Tower, and South porch. The church was restored in 1872. It is constructed of rubble stone with Barnack ashlar dressings, and has low-pitched lead roofs, with slate roofs over the North and South Chapels.

The church’s plan consists of a West tower, nave, North and South aisles, and a chancel flanked by North and South Chapels. The late 15th-century West tower has four stages, an embattled parapet on a two-stage splayed plinth, crocketed pinnacles at the corners, a main cornice with gargoyles, clasping four-stage buttresses, and a newel staircase in the South West corner. The West doorway features a four-centred archway in a square head with foliate spandrels, and a restored three-light West window. The bell chamber has two cinquefoil openings on each side.

The nave has a 15th-century clerestory with an embattled parapet and four two-light windows on each side, each with cinquefoil lights in a four-centred head. The South aisle retains a part of the wall from an earlier 13th-century church, with a diagonal two-stage buttress and a similar buttress defining the angle with the West tower. It also has a blocked parapet and two large beast gargoyles, along with one restored 14th-century window with a foiled head. The 15th-century South porch features diagonal two-stage buttresses, crocketed pinnacles, a vacant niche, and a hollow-moulded two-centred outer archway with embattled capitals on engaged shafts with high bases. The porch roof is original late 15th-century work.

The 14th-century South chapel, constructed of dressed Barnack ashlar, has two original windows with two trefoil lights and wave moulded reveals in square heads with labels and mask stops on the South wall. The East window of the chapel has a two-centred arch and restored reticulated tracery. The chancel has a parapetted gable end and a five-light window with flowing tracery. The North chapel and North aisle have similar 14th-century fenestration, with pinnacles on the chapel corners.

Inside, a 15th-century tower arch with panelled responds and a four-bay nave arcade of a similar date are present, featuring two-centred double chamfered arches with continuous labels on slender clustered columns. Original arches connect the North and South chapels to the chancel, although the Chancel arch now rests on 1872 corbels. The nave roof, and those of the South aisle, South and North chapels are either wholly or partially original. The North Chapel retains an aumbry in the North wall and a piscina in the South wall, but the chancel piscina has been replaced, and the South Chapel’s is absent.