Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church dating to the 14th and 15th centuries. It is constructed of flint with limestone dressings and features slate and lead roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a nave, a chancel, a south porch, and a north aisle.

The west tower is of 15th-century design with staged diagonal buttresses. It has a plinth with flushwork panels and some heraldic panels on the north side. The lower stage of the tower displays flintwork that is knapped and galletted with limestone blocks. It features square traceried sound holes with a canopied niche above, to the west, and large two-light traceried bell openings. An embattled parapet is present, incorporating flushwork and heraldic symbols within panels and corner pedestals for figures. The south porch opening has a re-set hood mould, possibly of Norman origin. The nave and chancel windows are three-light designs with Perpendicular tracery. A low side window and priest’s door are present in the south wall of the chancel, alongside a three-light reticulated east window. The north side of the nave contains two three-light Perpendicular windows, and a decorated, now blocked, north door. Re-used material is visible in the north wall, and a square stone chimney surmounts a buttress.

The nave roof is a good example of 15th-century construction, with angels on hammer beams, arch braced principal rafters, ridge, wall posts on corbel heads, and bosses at the intersections. The north arcade, of four bays, showcases four-centred arches on octagonal piers. The north aisle roof exhibits roll moulded and arch braced principals, and the chancel has a plastered ceiling, dating to the 18th century, with a cornice. A rood screen base is dated 1536 and features painted figures of saints in traceried panels. The upper section of the screen has been restored and incorporates an angel that fell from the nave roof in the early 20th century. A tower screen, salvaged from Burlingham St Peter, includes one-light divisions with crocketted ogee arches and panel tracery, all of 15th-century origin, and flanking the doorway are two figures of angels bearing the keys of St Peter. A four-centred archway leads from the chancel to the north chapel, and a squint arch provides a view into the chancel from the north side. A monument to Gregory Mileham, who died in 1615, is located on the chancel north wall. It is a slate tablet flanked by putti under a broken pediment. There are also wall monuments on the nave north wall to Ann Horth (died 1797) and Martha Leman (died 1803). The tower contains monuments to the Burroughes family, including James Birkin Burroughes (died November 30th 1803). A 14th-century octagonal font displays shields around the bowl and stem of four clustered shafts.