Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church with origins in the 12th century. The nave originally dates back to the 12th century and has been altered with later windows. The west tower and porch were constructed in the 16th century, and the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century. The church is built of flint with red brick dressings, limestone and brick dressings. The nave is thatched, the chancel has plain-tiled roofing with crested ridges, and the porch is pantiled.

The west tower is unbuttressed and built of flint with red brick dressings. It has brick-dressed niches at low levels on the west, north, and south walls, and sound holes with chamfered brick reveals and drip moulds. A small single-light west window is set in a chamfered reveal, with an offset at cill level below the sound openings. The tower is topped by a red brick parapet with bases for corner pinnacles.

The south porch, likely from the early 16th century, is made of red brick with a four-centred entrance arch supported by polygonal responds of plastered brick. There is a niche above the arch and a gable parapet with a crude square brick finial. Blocked east and west windows mark the original extent of the porch. Two 2-light windows are found in the nave’s south wall, the eastern one being a later rebuild with a square head and diagonal tracery.

The chancel, rebuilt in 1867, has shallow buttresses with stone dressings and weatherings, along with 2 and 3-light geometrical windows. The north chancel window is blind. The north wall of the nave shows the infilling of a former north arcade, which now forms part of the nave wall. One 2-light wooden Y-tracery window is set in a brick surround, and a memorial tablet set in the centre bay of the arcade carries an illegible inscription. The remains of a west wall indicate the former presence of a north aisle. A north doorway has a chamfered reveal.

Inside, the 14th-century north arcade is now blocked and forms part of the nave wall, consisting of three bays with arches featuring one plain and one hollow chamfer. The arcade has octagonal piers and capitals. The nave roof is scissor braced and has been much rebuilt. A tall, 14th-century tower arch has a double chamfered arch dying into a single-chamfered reveal, with a blocked opening and a small inserted doorway. In the chancel’s south-east corner is a reset double piscina dating to around 1300, featuring petalled bowls, a central shaft, and restored cusped heads. The north-east corner contains a monument to Sir Henry Gaudy, who died in 1620. A good 15th-century octagonal font features a stem with lions, slim-buttresses, and angel corbels below the bowl.