Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church dating to 1866-8, designed by Frederick J. Barnes. It is constructed of flat-faced rustic ragstone with Caen stone dressings, and has slate roofs with caped gable ends. The church is built in the Early Decorated Geometric style, with details interpreted accurately.

The plan incorporates a nave, chancel, north aisle, a tower over a porch at the west end of the south side of the nave, a small transepted vestry on the south side of the chancel, and a later vestry on the north side of the chancel. A parish room was added to the north-east corner of the chancel in 1973.

The exterior features Geometric traceried windows. The south side has two-light nave windows with buttresses between, and a transepted vestry to the chancel. To the left of the porch is a three-stage tower, featuring a moulded two-centred arch doorway, angle buttresses, trefoil friezes, Geometric traceried two-light bell openings, a stone broach spire with lucarnes, and a weathervane. The east and west windows are three-light Geometric traceried windows.

On the north side, the nave roof slopes down as a catslide over the north aisle, with short pointed head windows and oculus windows with squat buttresses between. Large angle buttresses are present at the north-west corner. Two wooden clerestory dormers are in the nave roof, and one long eight-light flat-roof dormer is over the aisle, all with wooden tracery. The chancel has a similar dormer, and a later flat-roof vestry is on the north side. The plank doors are fitted with ornate wrought-iron hinges.

The interior has plastered walls. A five-bay north arcade features octagonal piers and double-chamfered two-centred arches. The nave has a fine arch-braced hammerbeam roof, while the north aisle has a single-pitch roof with large pierced spandrels over the trusses and against the arcade spandrels. The chancel roof is scissor-braced. An elaborate oak screen, dating to 1934, has carved tracery and a vaulted canopy. The church is fully seated, including choir stalls. Other interior features include a carved Gothic altar rail, a wooden pulpit, a lectern, and a 19th-century organ. The floors are of encaustic tile. A fine 15th-century font has a tall octagonal stem with pinnacles, canopied niches with signs of the four Evangelists and four small figures, an octagonal bowl with panels depicting the Seven Sacraments and the Martyrdom of St Andrew. Stained glass includes an east window from 1872 by Ward and Hughes, a south window from 1903 by C E Kempe, and other windows by Heaton Butler and Bayne and A L Moore.