Church of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew, Boreham, is a parish church with origins in the late 11th or early 12th century. The central tower dates from this early period, with its upper stage added in the late 12th century. The aisles were built in the 13th century, and the eastern two bays of the south aisle were widened in the 14th century. The chancel was rebuilt in the late 14th century, the north aisle widened and the south porch added or rebuilt in the 15th century. The south chancel chapel originated in the 16th century but was rebuilt in the 19th century. The church underwent restoration by Frederic Chancellor in stages between 1868 and 1912, with further work in 1924 by A Y Nutt.

The church is built of flint rubble with some ironstone and freestone. Dressings for the late 11th and 12th century work are largely Roman brick, whilst other dressings are limestone and clunch. The south porch and south walkway are timber framed. The roofs are tiled except for lead on the north aisle.

The plan consists of a nave with north and south aisles (the south aisle widening in the eastern bays), a south west vestry and south porch with attached south covered walkway. There is a central tower, a chancel with a vault-like porch on the north side, and a south chapel.

Exterior

The exterior is notably varied, with the very long wooden south porch extension and central tower being particularly striking features.

The central tower has three stages with an embattled parapet topped by 17th-century brick coping and a pyramidal cap. The lower half dates from the 11th century or very early 12th century and contains a narrow, round-headed window partly built of Roman brick in both the north and south faces. A 19th-century door in the south west angle, leading to the internal tower stair, replaces a round-headed 11th or 12th-century doorway with chamfered imposts. The second stage has two-light windows with round heads and a central shaft with a replaced cushion capital in the north and south walls. The top stage, added in the later 12th century, has in each face a two-light window beneath a tympanum within a pointed-headed outer opening.

The 14th-century chancel features a reticulated east window and small trefoiled lights with square heads in both north and south walls. There is also a three-light 15th-century window in the north side. Also on the chancel's north side is the Tyrell vault, which resembles a porch, built around 1804 and rebuilt in 1895. The late 16th-century south (Sussex) chancel chapel was largely rebuilt in the 19th century, when it was made considerably shorter on its west side. It has single-light windows in the east and west walls and a two-light window in the south wall.

The north aisle dates from the 15th century and has large, three-light windows with vertical tracery. There are no east or west windows in the north aisle. A building break in the north aisle west wall indicates the extent of the original early 13th-century aisle. The large nave west window is late 15th century and has five foiled lights with transoms and vertical tracery in a four-centred head.

The south aisle comprises two sections. The western two bays are 12th century. Very narrow, this section has a late 12th or early 13th-century west window. The eastern two bays, to the east of the porch, were rebuilt in the 14th century and have heavily or entirely renewed flint walling with stone banding, and two-light early 14th-century style windows in the south wall. There is no east window in the south aisle.

The south porch was partially rebuilt in white brick in the mid 19th century, but the east and west side walls have six 15th-century cinquefoiled lights with timber mullions. Formerly open, these are now glazed. The porch roof is also 15th century and has a moulded wall plate and cornice with a central purlin with carved braces. The south door has 13th-century chamfered jambs. The porch continues into a highly unusual long, timber-framed walkway resembling a series of lychgates. Originally built in 1843 and rebuilt in 1924, it consists of a series of open sections with timber posts, arched braces and tiled roofs descending towards the street. The southernmost section has a half-hipped roof. The south west vestry was added around 1900.

Interior

The four-bay north and south nave arcades are early 13th century and have one chamfered order on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. They die into small corbels at the east and west ends. A blocked 15th or early 16th-century door led from the tower stair to a former rood loft. The eastern two bays only of the south aisle were widened in the early 14th century, and a contemporary half-arch in the south aisle against the central pier marks the transition to the narrower 13th-century western bays. There are two south doors in the narrower section: one the 13th-century south door, the other an early 20th-century door to the west of the main south door that leads to the south west vestry. Traces of a former west window in the north aisle, like that surviving in the south aisle, are visible internally.

The western arch of the central tower is 14th century and has three chamfered orders on octagonal responds. Above it are the remains of a taller, narrower round-headed arch of the late 11th or early 12th century with mixed brick and stone voussoirs. To the left (north) of the chancel arch, below the east corbel of the north arcade, there is a partial round-headed recess of mixed Roman brick and stone that formerly held a nave altar beside the narrower, former west tower arch. It preserves the remains of its original altar slab, and a small 14th-century piscina indicates the continued presence of an altar here after the construction of the chancel arch.

The round-headed eastern tower arch is also late 11th or early 12th century and is entirely of brick, though of apparently different construction to the west arch. Wider and lower than the original western arch, it has two square orders to the west and a single square order to the east with small imposts, also in brick. There is a blocked late 11th or early 12th-century door with a round head with radial voussoirs and chamfered imposts in the tower that formerly led to the tower stair, and there are high-level doors in both the east and west faces of the tower, both with stone jambs and Roman brick arches.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century and has a 14th-century string course around the inside. The arch to the Sussex chapel was rebuilt in the 19th century and has a chamfered arch on heavily moulded corbels. There is a squint from a lost north chapel or chamber into the chancel. The late 16th-century Sussex chapel was almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century and is dominated by the huge monument to the Earls of Sussex.

Principal Fixtures

The font is early 14th century, hexagonal with deeply sunk, gabled trefoil panels around the tall bowl, which sits directly on a moulded base. There is a 14th-century piscina with a cusped ogee head to the north of the western tower arch. The screen under the eastern tower arch and that enclosing an area at the west end of the north aisle are made up from fragments of 15th-century screenwork. There is also some probably 18th-century panelling at the west end of the nave. A few fragments of 14th-century glass survive in the Sussex chapel south window, along with some good 19th-century glass. The chancel has a tilework reredos of the 19th century with similar tiling on the base of the font. Medieval wall painting of false ashlar and geometric designs decorates the chancel, with a band of 19th-century floral banding below it. The 19th-century lectern has carved figures of the Evangelists. There is 19th-century geometric tile paving in the chancel. The nave has plain 19th-century benches.

In the Sussex chapel stand three excellent recumbent figures in armour on a single tomb chest for the first three Earls of Sussex, who died in 1542, 1567 and 1583. The monument was created by Richard Stevens of Southwark between 1587 and 1589. There is a brass for Alse Byng, who died in 1573, which is a palimpsest with a 15th-century reverse. Many, mostly 19th-century wall monuments are found in the nave and chancel. Four 18th-century hatchments and some ledger slabs in the floor are also present.

The south porch roof is 15th century. The north aisle roof is 15th century at the east end with some replacement timber at the west end.

History

The early construction history of the church is not entirely clear. The Royal Commission argued that the nave central tower and a now-rebuilt chancel were constructed in the 11th or early 12th century. However, the differences in construction techniques between the east and west tower arches may suggest that the base of the tower was originally the 11th-century chancel and that it was raised when the chancel was added, perhaps in the early 12th century. The upper part of the tower was added in the later 12th century, and the aisles in the early 13th century. The position of the former altar niche to the left of the west tower arch indicates that the 13th-century arcade was built inside the line of the walls of the wider Norman nave rather than being punched through the nave walls as was often done. The nave may also have been lengthened at this date. Only the eastern two bays of the south aisle were widened in the early 14th century. The chancel was rebuilt and probably extended in the later 14th century, and the north aisle was widened in the 15th century when the nave west window was also installed and the south porch added or rebuilt. The south chancel (Sussex) chapel was added in the later 16th century and was originally longer towards the west. The south porch was rebuilt in 1843, and the Sussex chapel was rebuilt and reduced in length in 1860. The rest of the church was restored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.