Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A parish church dating from the 12th to 15th centuries, restored in 1892. Built of flint and iron conglomerate with stone dressings. The roofing comprises lead to the nave aisles and porch, and black glazed pantiles to the chancel.

The church plan comprises a west tower, south porch, nave with north and south aisles, chancel, and north chapel or vestry.

The unbuttressed west tower stands in three stages separated by string courses, with an embattled parapet finished in stone dressings. A polygonal stair turret projects to the south-east, featuring conglomerate quoins and small square pierced stone lights. The west window contains 2 cusped lights beneath an octofoil. Bell openings display 2 cusheaded lights under a quatrefoil. On the second stage, openings of 2 lights have been reduced to one or blocked with brick and knapped flint. The west windows to the north and south aisles each contain 2 lights below 4 quatrefoils under a pointed segmental head.

The south porch has diagonal buttresses and is built of knapped flint with some bricks. Its arch is partly rendered brick. A niche above contains a tablet memorial. Openings on each side display 2 ogee-headed lights under mouchettes with square hood mould. The open rafter roof is of 15th-century date with moulded beams. A single chamfered arched doorway, asymmetrical to the porch, leads into the church. The door is ledged and battoned with a circular iron plate (ring missing) and a separate superimposed annular border plate of fretwork trefoils.

The south and north clerestories are of knapped flint with 4 windows to each side, each containing 2 ogee-headed cusped lights under a sextofoil. The arches alternate between brick and flint. The north aisle has stone dressings; the south aisle has conglomerate dressings. Each aisle contains 3 openings of 2 lights and panel tracery under square heads, some renewed. A plain north doorway has been partly rebuilt in brick.

The chancel south wall displays herringbone work in conglomerate and a vertical line of conglomerate quoin from an earlier building. A central doorway features a plain pointed arch in brick. Two openings contain 2 trefoil-headed lights under a quatrefoil. The east window displays 3 lights with panel tracery, renewed. Parts of a stone cross remain above the chancel gable end. A circular window appears in the gable end of the nave.

Interior: The nave comprises 4 bays with north and south arcades of octagonal piers and double chamfered arches. The roof to the nave and aisles has been renewed but retains 15th-century moulded principal beams, with grotesques as bosses and corbels and shallow pitch; the nave roof includes braced tie beams. The 15th-century tower arch is moulded to the east with round shafts bearing embattled capitals. Above sits a narrow round-headed 12th-century light, splayed to the nave. The chancel arch is pointed segmental with moulded arch and plain jambs. The 19th-century chancel roof employs wall-braced open rafter construction. A small 4-centred arched doorway accesses the chapel or vestry to the north of the chancel. A similar arch leads to the roof stair to the north.

Fittings include a 17th-century communion table with guilloche frieze and initials IS, and 17th-century communion rails with splat balusters and large ball finials. An early 15th-century painted screen displays ogee tracery lights with ball-ended cusps under panel tracery; panels, some renewed, are painted alternately with red and green brocade. A fragment of black letter gospel text survives on the south aisle wall. The font is a plain octagonal design with 15th-century traceried stem. The font cover is dated 1621. Beneath the tower hangs a long canvas bearing the Royal achievement of Queen Anne, flanked by the 10 Commandments and Old Testament texts.