Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church with a late 12th-century west tower and a main body dating to the early 15th century, restored in 1895. It is constructed of ferruginous conglomerate for the tower, and carstone and flint with ashlar dressings for the remainder, all set beneath plain tiled roofs.

The round tower has three stages. It features a restored round arched west window, a lancet to the west on the second stage, and a blocked lancet to the north. Above this, an octagonal brick belfry stage has Y tracery windows on each facet, with alternating pairs of windows blocked; it is topped by a plain parapet.

A late 17th-century south porch is built of rendered brick with a shaped gable. The outer door jambs and arch incorporate reused medieval material. A statutory niche is present in the gable, adorned with triangular hood stops. The porch interior features a barrel vault with transverse ribs. The inner south door, dating to the early 13th century, has shafts with bell capitals, supporting square imposts and a deeply undercut moulded pointed arch.

The nave has four flat buttresses with a single set-off to the north and south. The eastern two bays feature 3-light Perpendicular windows under depressed arches, with stepped transoms above ogee arches. The chancel has 3-light Perpendicular windows beneath pointed arches on the south side, and a single window on the north side, with a stepped buttress and priests’ door to the south and diagonal east buttresses. The east window is a three-light Perpendicular panel tracery window with a crenellated transom. A gabled 19th-century vestry adjoins the north side. A blocked wave moulded north nave door is visible internally.

Inside, a pointed tower arch leads to a 14th-century octagonal ringers’ gallery with facets decorated with quatrefoils. The nave features a 19th-century scissors braced roof with a crenellated tie beam, and surviving rood stairs. A triple-chamfered tower arch is present. The chancel has a 19th-century crown post roof on a chamfered tie beam, with a surviving embattled 15th-century wall plate. The church retains early 17th-century iron twist altar rails. The early 17th-century pulpit is decorated with punched arcading on fluted pilaster strips above a dado of rectangular panels with diamond fielding. Consoles support the reading desk, which shares similar decoration. One south nave window contains 15th-century glass in the head.

Several wall monuments are notable. A monument to Colonel Edmond Soames (died 1706), dated 1710 and signed by Robert Singleton, is on the south chancel wall. It is made of white, pink, and grey marble, featuring a life-size statue of Soames in military dress. A monument to Thomas Dereham (died 1722) is on the north chancel wall, made of marble. A further monument to Robert (died 1612) and Thomas Dereham (died 1559) is also on the north chancel wall; it incorporates black slate and marble with decorative features.