Church of St Andrew

TL 67 SE 3/22

FRECKENHAM CHURCH LANE Church of St. Andrew

7.5.54

II* Church, medieval with alterations of 1867-69 by G.E Street; the tower rebuilt 1884. Nave, chancel, north aisle with organ chamber (formerly chapel ), west tower, south porch and north vestry. Flint rubble with limestone dressings and parapets. Roofs mostly plain tiled; the aisle and tower roofs leaded.

In the chancel are several features of late C13: a Y-traceried vestry window, another in the chancel with low-side windows, another with plate tracery and dropped-cell sedilia, and the adjacent double piscina with trefoiled head. Of c.1300 is the three-light east window with inner shafts; the hoodmould and flanking dado have carved foliate stops. North and south nave doorways and vestry doorway all plain, perhaps of c.1300; also the south chancel doorway and Y-traceried window above. The north aisle was added late C14; the existing C19 two-light windows probably correctly copy the originals, as elsewhere. Four bay arcade of clustered columns with moulded capitals; a matching arch leads into the organ chamber. Later C14 aisle roof with arch-braced tie-beams, moulded purlins with leaf-carved bosses and applied angels; wall-pieces on figure-carved wooden corbels. The chapel roof and window are of C15; also roofs to nave and chancel, canted and boarded in square panels with carved bosses; in the chancel these contain painted escutcheons, in the nave they are leaf-carved. The porch was rebuilt 1867 with moulded arched doorway in the manner of c.1300. In 1884 the tower collapsed and was rebuilt in the Perpendicular style, with clasping buttresses, west doorway and crenellated parapets.

Octagonal limestone font of late C14 or C15. In the nave and aisle are five sets of eight C15 pews, well-restored, many having original poppy-head ends with fine carved figures. An alabaster plaque with traces of paint found buried in the north wall c.1770, is reset beside the north doorway; it is believed to be from a C15 altar and depicts a miracle by St. Eligius. In the nave is a painted late C18 plaque recording the bequest of Mrs Catherin Shore. In several chancel windows is good C19 stained glass, some with painted borders perhaps containing medieval glass.

Listing NGR: TL6659771758