Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church largely dating to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 18th centuries. The building is constructed of rubble flint, with coursed stone to the tower, and has plaintiled roofs. It comprises a nave, chancel, south porch, and a west tower. The 12th-century round tower retains three original slit windows at its intermediate stages. Later windows to the upper stage are plain single-lights with pointed heads. A string course with gargoyle heads runs around the tower, topped by crenellations. The 14th-century south porch has a shallow-pitched lead roof, diagonal buttresses with flushwork panels, and shields in the spandrels of the entrance arch depicting emblems of the Passion and the Trinity. Two Norman doorways are located on the north and south sides of the nave. The south doorway features one order of shafts and a roll-moulding with a frieze of beasts' heads. The north doorway is more elaborate, with two orders of engaged shafts, one with spiral and the other with zigzag decoration, along with volute and scalloped capitals, and zigzag and lunette moulding on the arches. Perpendicular two-light windows with traceried heads are found on the nave’s north and south sides. The chancel windows consist of paired lancets set into earlier round openings, and the east window is a 3-light design with pointed heads within a single arch, dating to around 1800. A 15th-century porch features a blocked traceried window on each side and an open timber roof with embattled cornices, moulded trimmers, and carved bosses at the intersections. Within the nave, a holy water stoup remains to the east of the south door. The 15th-century octagonal font is decorated with emblems of the Evangelists alternating with angels carrying shields, alongside lions and wild men around the base. The nave seating is mainly Victorian, but incorporates old poppyhead bench-ends. Arms of George III are displayed above the north door. The nave’s roof is braced in six bays, without collars, with an ogee-moulded tie-beam to every alternate truss. Sections of the former rood-loft stairs are visible high up in the north-east corner of the nave, with two plain recesses to the west of the same window. A simple Jacobean pulpit with chamfered corners is present. A trefoil-headed niche is set into the jamb of the south-east nave window, and remains of a piscina are found in the south-east corner. Fragments of medieval stained glass are in the nave windows. The chancel has been altered in the Victorian era, with four old poppyhead bench-ends reused in later benches. A black ledger slab commemorating Elizabeth Blomfield (d.1638) is set into the chancel floor.