Church Of St Andrew

Anglican church built 1869-70 incorporating a 15th-century doorway from an earlier church on the site. The steeple was completed 1875-6. Designed by architect J Johnson Junior and built by contractors Dove Brothers of London.

Materials and Style

Constructed of flint with grey limestone dressings and bands, and fine yellow sandstone windows. The roofs are covered in Welsh slate with red ridge tiles. The building exemplifies high Victorian Gothic Revival architecture in the Early English and Decorated styles.

Plan

The church has a cruciform plan with a four-bay nave and half-octagonal chancel corner. It comprises a west steeple, nave with aisles, transepts, chancel, and north porch.

Exterior

The west tower rises in two stages of flint with limestone bands and quoins, with angle buttresses. It is surmounted by an octagonal belfry flanked by tall octagonal pinnacles with spirelets, and crowned by an octagonal spire with lucarnes on alternate faces. A half-octagonal stair turret projects from the south side of the tower. The west doorway features a roll-moulded arch with carved poppy heads, supported on colonnettes with stiffleaf carved capitals. Above are two-light lancets with moulded arches on colonnettes. The octagonal belfry has large two-light openings on alternate faces, with moulded arches and geometrical tracery supported on tall colonnettes. An arcaded band runs around the base of the spire.

The north porch, positioned in the second bay from the west of the north aisle, has an outer door with roll-moulded jambs and intrados, with moulded arches above colonnettes featuring stiffleaf capitals and a dripmould with undercut ball flower ornament.

The nave arcade clerestory is divided into four bays with two-light windows featuring bar tracery with alternating trefoils and quatrefoils. The aisles are subdivided by buttresses, with three lancets in each bay having trefoil heads.

The north transept has a tall gabled roof with stone kneelers, coping and cross finial, and angle buttresses with two stages of offsets above a stone band at window sill level and a projecting plinth. The tall window features colonnettes with foliated capitals, a casement moulded arch with carved ball flowers and a dripmould. The lower part of the window has two lancets, each subdivided into two lights with trefoil heads and trefoils above, with a large rose window above containing elaborate geometric tracery of a central quatrefoil, circles, and trefoils with circles.

The chancel sits at a lower level than the aisle roof, with a half-octagonal end containing the east window and two flanking windows of identical design. Each window has bar tracery of three lancets with a circle above containing an inner cinquefoil.

The south transept, aisle and nave clerestory repeat the design of those on the north side.

Interior

The north porch incorporates a late 15th-century inner doorway with a hood mould on carved demi-figures of angels and quatrefoil decoration in the spandrels. The church interior continues the Early English and Decorated style.

The tower has brick walls with sandstone decorative features, including a two-light west lancet and a tall Early English style tower arch with a chamfered reveal and attached colonnettes with stiffleaf capitals. The arch features undercut roll mouldings, while the outer arch spanning the full width of the nave has tall colonnettes with amulets, stiffleaf capitals, and an arch with carved dog tooth and poppy head ornament. A quadripartite groined vault springs from ornamental corbels carved with angels.

The four-bay nave continues eastward into the transepts. The nave arcade has circular sandstone columns with bold roll bases raised on square brick plinths, topped with stiffleaf bell capitals with bold undercut roll mouldings. The nave arcade arches have chamfered intrados and are carried on twin attached colonnettes at the east and west responds.

The clerestory contains two-light sandstone windows with trefoil heads and geometrical tracery set within brick walls. The roof is of timber arch-braced construction raised on corbels with stiffleaf ornament. Scissor rafters above support purlins, and there are scissor rafters at every third common rafter between the arch-braced bay divisions.

The aisles have brick walls with deeply inset lancets, three in each bay. The west windows to the aisles are paired lancets with roundels above. Aisle roofs feature low arch braces raised on corbels at bay divisions, with chamfered purlins. Low chamfered arches raised on corbels open into the transepts.

The transepts consist of wide bays continuing the line of the nave eastwards. The transept arches have a twin chamfered form, flanked by tall paired colonnettes with amulets and stiffleaf capitals, and roll-moulded bases. They feature brick walls with stone decorative features, and large transept windows as described externally.

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel, originally the organ chamber, opens off the north transept. The organ was relocated to the south transept in 1890.

The chancel arch has tall twin arches with colonnettes and amulets, and stiffleaf capitals. The outer arch features carved dog tooth ornament, while the inner arch has stylised poppy heads.

The chancel projects as two narrow bays divided by tall colonnettes with stiffleaf capitals, with a polygonal apsidal end decorated in the Decorated style. Blind arcading of geometrical traceried paired lancets is flanked by tall colonnettes with inner lower crocketed canopies on blank walls, matching the style of the windows in the apsidal end. The roof is boarded between ribs with nailhead ornament. The chancel floor is raised three steps from the nave and is covered with encaustic tiles.

Fittings

The altar area is raised two steps above the chancel. The altar and reredos were installed in 1914 in memory of Reverend Evan Killin, Rector from 1897 to 1913, carved with gilded marble and mosaic panels. The oak choir stalls with arcaded frontals were installed in 1905. The pews in the nave are of similar date, with bench ends carved with the emblems of St Andrew (cross), St Nicholas (anchor) and St Mary (fleur-de-lys). The altar stone in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel is incised with crosses and has a cavity for the reception of relics. It was discovered during excavations on the Old Cross site of the former St Mary's Church in 1898 during construction of the Library.

The pulpit was constructed in 1888 in 13th-century style using grey Forest of Dean stone, red Devon marble, green Connemara marble, and cream Caen stone. It is octagonal in form, with a base of eight columns with red marble shafts, square plinths and bases, and stiffleaf capitals. The top is divided into panels by green Connemara colonnettes. The pierced arcaded frontal has traceried openings under a green marble moulded top rail.

The font at the west end in front of the tower arch was raised on its present stepped podium in 1890. Made of cream sandstone in 14th-century style, it is octagonal with an arcaded surround to the bowl featuring ogee arches.

Memorials

The church contains several memorials reset from the earlier church, including 15 black or cream incised slabs of 17th to 18th century date dispersed through the nave and transepts. Among the most important is a large black marble slab commemorating Rebecca and Bostock Toller (died 1718 and 1721), incised with inscriptions and featuring relief carved armorial hatchments and memento mori.

The south transept has a large wall tablet in white marble on a black marble background slab, commemorating Nathaniel Dimsdale, Baron of the Empire of all the Russias (died 1811), who together with his father had inoculated Catherine the Great against smallpox and had been the Divisional Member of Parliament. The tablet also commemorates other members of the Dimsdale family.

Stained Glass

The late 19th-century chancel windows include the east window depicting the Crucifixion with Christ in Majesty in the roundel above, attributed to Hardman. The north-east and north-west windows, in the style of 16th-century glass, show St John and St Andrew, the Virgin Mary, Archbishop Theodore, St Nicholas, and a centurion.

附Attached Buildings

A vestry block and hall is attached at the rear, constructed of flint with stone dressings, with lancet windows featuring leaded-light lattice glazing, stone parapeted gables, and a Welsh slated roof. This is linked to a 20th-century hall of no special interest.

Historical Note

The foundation stone of St Andrew's was laid on 4 June 1869 by Earl Cowper (at the base of the left-hand buttress of the north transept) and the church was consecrated on 24 March 1870. In 1874, with money donated by Earl Cowper and Ralph Abel Smith, the tower and spire were added and the bells rehung.