Church Of St Andrew

BRAMFIELD MAIN ROAD TL 21 NE (West side) Bramfield 3/17 Church of St. Andrew 24.11.66 - II

Parish church. Late C14 origins. Nave rebuilt, tower and porch added in 1840. Restored, vestry and organ bay added in 1870 by C.B. Trollope. Flint rubble chancel, otherwise stock brick, cement rendered. Tiled roofs. Retains medieval nave and chancel plan, tower to W, porch to S, vestry and organ bay to NE. 3 light E window with restored reticulated tracery, pointed arched head with hood mould, tile coursing at sill level. Blocked brick arched opening at ground level. Moulded rendered gable parapet with kneelers. 2 stage diagonal buttresses. Chancel S elevation has 2 C15 2 light square headed windows, cinquefoiled lights, outer hollow moulding, blocked priest's door, sprocket eaves. Taller nave with projecting closed S porch: moulded Tudor arch with mask stopped hood mould, vertical panelled door, moulded and coped gable parapet, 2 stage diagonal buttresses, 4 light square headed windows in porch returns. Flanking porch are 2 light 4 centred arched windows, cinquefoiled lights with upper quatrefoils, hood moulds, 2 stage diagonal buttresses. Similar windows and buttresses to N. Coped gable parapet with kneelers to nave W end. W tower of 2 short stages. To W a panelled door in moulded Tudor arch, cusped spandrels to square head, mask stopped hood moulds. Second stage vertical louvred lights with plain lugged architraves, diamond panels with inner circles for clocks, trefoil ornament. 3 stage angle buttresses. Cornice to embattled parapet with steps up to centre on 3 sides over louvred belfry openings. Octagonal splay-footed spire. Separately roofed vestry/organ bay to N of chancel has steps up to N entrance with moulded Tudor arched surround, diagonal buttresses, 2 light windows in gable ends with kneelers to coped gable parapets. Interior: C14 piscina in chancel S wall at raised floor level, trefoiled arch, hollow moulded with stopped hood mould, credence shelf. C19 triple pointed and chamfered tower arches. Tower converted to octagonal baptistery in 1870, circular stem and octagonal bowl to font. Timber chancel arch, braced tie beam with moulded drops. Dado moulding on nave and chancel walls. Moulded C19 tie beams and struts in nave roof. From chancel to organ bay a 4 centred arch, door to vestry. Monuments: chancel N wall, cartouche with epitaph to George Lord Viscount Grandison, d.1699, carved in Baroque style with arms above. Chancel S wall a copy of this, more crudely executed, to Rev E. Bourchier, d. 1775, also a simple marble slab with base and cornice to Rev E. Bourchier, d.1785. C17 chest in vestry with 3 panelled front. Organ by H. Jones of Fulham Road with Gothic carving and painted pipes. E window late C19 stained glass. According to Matthew Paris Bramfield was the first benifice of St. Thomas S Becket. (The Builder, vol.28, 1851, Nov.26, 1870, p.951: RCHM 1910: VCH 1912: Pevsner 1977).

Listing NGR: TL2913415592