Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th, 15th, and 19th centuries. It is located in Raveningham, near Raveningham Park.

The church is constructed primarily of flint with limestone dressings, though the walls are largely rendered. Slate roofs cover the building. The structure comprises a west tower, nave, north aisle, chancel, vestry, and a south porch.

The west tower has a round base from the 12th century, topped by an octagonal stage from the 13th century. Lancet windows are found on the southwest, southeast, northwest, and northeast faces of the tower. A double-stepped castellated parapet with corner pinnacles and flushwork panels was added in the 15th century. The south porch, also from the 15th century, has a moulded gable parapet, although details of the entrance arch are obscured by later rendering. The south door features very fine 12th-century ironwork in the form of foliated crosses. A restored 2-light high-level nave window sits above the porch. The nave has tall 2- and 3-light windows from the 15th century, characterised by pointed segmental arches and stilted hoodmoulds. The chancel, dating from around 1300, features a blocked lancet at the southwest corner and a blocked priest’s door with a raised cill. A blocked 2-light Y tracery window and a renewed tall lancet are at the southeast corner, flanked by massive raking buttresses. The east window is of three lights with cusped Y tracery. The north wall of the chancel includes one blocked lancet, also flanked by raking buttresses. A 19th-century flint vestry is situated in the angle between the chancel and the north aisle, with 2-light square-headed windows facing east and north. An octagonal red brick chimney stack is located at the junction of the nave and aisle. The north wall of the aisle has three 2-light windows, largely patched and renewed, likely dating back to the 14th century, along with a blocked north doorway. The nave clerestory consists of three bays with square-headed 2-light windows arranged in pairs. A 2-light west window graces the aisle with cusped Y tracery.

The interior features nave and chancel roofs that were renewed in the 19th or 20th century. The north arcade comprises four bays with double chamfered arches and octagonal piers. A wide semi-circular chancel arch, also with a double chamfer and polygonal responds, connects the nave and chancel. Splayed reveals are visible on the clerestory windows. Elaborate early 19th-century arcading adorns the chancel, echoing an early 14th-century tomb recess in the centre of the south wall, which is decorated with a cusped and pointed trefoil in the spandrel. Within the recess is a memorial slab to Roger Castell (died 1708), and numerous other memorial slabs to members of the Bacon and Castell families, including brasses to Margaret Castyll (died 1483) and John Castle (died 1593) and his wife Francis (died 1614). A number of 17th and 18th-century slabs are set into the nave floor. A 14th-century piscina, with a petalled bowl, is found in the south wall of the chancel. A stone coffin slab is embedded in the east wall of the north aisle. A large free-standing monument at the southwest corner of the nave is dedicated to Edward Hodge (died 1815) and features a square base surmounted by an urn, all crafted in white marble. The font, dating from the 15th century, is octagonal, with four lions around the stem and four figures and the signs of the Evangelists around the bowl.