Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Anglican church built between 1852 and 1854, designed by Francis B. Newman and John Johnson. The building is constructed of snecked Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, with a slate roof featuring fish-scale patterning. The spire is of ashlar.

The church comprises a chancel, north and south vestries, north and south transepts, north and south aisles, and a south-west tower with spire. The vestries, transepts and aisles each have their own pitched roofs. All windows are pointed-arched throughout.

The chancel sits under a lower roof than the nave. Its east end features diagonal buttresses and a five-light east window with geometrical tracery beneath an ogee hoodmould. The north chapel is set back only slightly from the east end and has a two-light window with vesica-shaped tracery above, creating a stilted trefoil outline under a hoodmould that appears elsewhere on the church. A stilted trefoiled entrance in the north wall has elaborate arch-mouldings that die into the responds. The north side has one lancet window and one two-light window, with a truncated chimney rising to the ridge. The south chapel projects further back from the east end, with an east window matching the north chapel and a two-light window to the south.

The south transept has angle buttresses to the west and two lancets in the south wall with a rose window above, its tracery consisting of superimposed trefoils. On the east side of the transept, beneath a continuation of its roof, is a stilted trefoiled entrance to the south and, to the east, a range of six raked trefoiled lancets lighting a staircase. The north transept has a similar arrangement with directions reversed.

The north aisle comprises four bays with three-light windows between buttresses; the two outer windows have trefoils in the tracery while the inner two have quatrefoils. A chimney sits on the apex of the south gable, and a four-light west window lights the aisle. The south aisle has three bays; its easternmost window has trefoiled tracery while the other two have quatrefoils.

A porch beneath the south-west tower features a stilted trefoiled entrance with a multi-moulded arch resting on engaged colonettes, all framed by a gabled hoodmould with now-decayed crockets. The entrance to the church proper has a pointed arch with mouldings dying into the responds.

The tower rises in three stages with angle buttresses. The second stage has two lancets at the bottom and one at the top, which pierces the offset between the second and third stages. The third stage is the bell stage, containing a louvred window with two lights over quatrefoils. A cornice with ballflower ornament and corner gargoyles finishes the tower. The splay-footed spire has two tiers of lucarnes. A stair tower in the north-west angle serves the first and second stages.

The west end has a central pointed-arched entrance flanked by two small lancets and framed by plain moulding. A four-light west window above quatrefoils features geometrical tracery.

The interior comprises a chancel flanked by organ chambers with a corbelled and multi-moulded chancel arch. North and south transepts are galleried, and the nave contains four bays with pointed arches and corbelled vault-shafts. An organ gallery occupies the west end. The organ chambers flanking the chancel, the north and south transepts, the space beneath the organ gallery, and most of the north aisle have been partitioned off.