Church Of St Andrew

TM 37 NE WISSETT

5/51 Church of St. Andrew 1-9-53 - I

Parish church. C12, C14 and later. Rubble flint, coursed to tower, the rest random, with remains of old plaster; rendered east end; plaintiled roofs. Nave, chancel, south porch, and west tower. C12 round tower with 3 original slit windows in the intermediate stages; later windows to the top stage, plain single-light with pointed heads; string course with gargoyle heads; crenellated top. C14 south porch: shallow-pitched lead roof, diagonal buttresses with flushwork panels, shields in the spandrels of the entrance arch with the emblems of the Passion and the Trinity. Norman north and south doorways to the nave: on the south, one order of shafts, and a roll-moulding with an outer frieze of beasts' heads touching it with their chins; on the north, a far finer doorway with 2 orders of engaged shafts, one with spiral and the other with zigzag decoration; volute and scalloped capitals; one arch with zigzag moulding, the other with lunettes, the whole surrounded by an outer arch and jambs with billet moulding. Perpendicular 2-light windows with traceried heads to nave. The chancel windows are paired lancets set into earlier rounded openings, and the east window has 3 lights with pointed heads within a single arch, all in simple Gothick style of c.1800. C15 porch with a blocked traceried window in each side wall and an open timber roof: embattled cornice, moulded trimmers, and carved bosses at the intersections. Within the nave, to the east of the south door, remains of a holy water stoup. C15 octagonal font, with the emblems of the Evangelists alternating with angels carrying shields around the bowl, and lions alternating with wild men around the base. The seating in the nave is mainly Victorian, but some old poppyhead bench-ends have been incorporated with later benches. The Arms of George III over the north door. An arched braced roof in 6 bays, without collars, but with an ogee-moulded tie-beam to every alternate truss. To the east of the window in the north-east corner of the nave is a section of the rood-loft stairs, high up; to the west of the same window, 2 plain recesses. A simple square Jacobean pulpit, the corners chamfered. An empty trefoil-headed niche in the jamb of the south-east nave window and the remains of a piscina in the south-east corner. All the nave windows contain fragments of medieval stained glass. The chancel has been Victorianised: 4 old poppyhead bench-ends are reused in later benches. On the floor, a black ledger slab with a brass to

Elizabeth Blomfield (d.1638).

Listing NGR: TM3661279292