Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a parish church in Kingham, situated on Church Street. The building dates primarily to the mid-14th and 15th centuries, though it has undergone significant alterations. The chancel was rebuilt in 1688, the south aisle was added, and the entire church was extensively restored in 1852-3.

The exterior is built of regularly coursed and dressed ironstone with limestone ashlar dressings, except for the tower which is of roughly coursed limestone. The roofs are covered in stone slate and slate, with stepped coped verges and embattled parapets.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles, and a south porch.

The west tower is constructed in three stages and dates to the mid-14th century with a 15th-century embattled parapet. It features a chamfered plinth and stepped diagonal buttresses to the bottom stage, moulded string courses, and crocketed corner pinnacles. A projecting rectangular stair turret sits at the south-east corner. The belfry contains stone-slate-louvred two-light trefoil-headed windows with four-centred arches and hoodmoulds; the window to the east is infilled with a clock inserted. The south side has a sharply pointed doorway to the west face of the stair turret, which displays rectangular slit openings. The west side features a double-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with six-panel double doors and a three-light window with reticulated tracery above it, plus a narrow rectangular chamfered window to the third stage.

The mid-14th-century north aisle is buttressed in four bays with two-light windows featuring reticulated tracery to the north wall and similar three-light windows to the east and west walls. A stone carved with the date "1769" is positioned to the east of the second window from the west.

The nave has a weathered carved medieval head to the centre of its south parapet, with an apex containing a 19th-century octagonal stone stack to the east.

The south aisle, added in 1852-3, has two two-light windows with reticulated tracery, hoodmoulds and head-stops to the west of the porch, and three such windows to the east. Carved heads decorate the moulded cornice below the parapet. Three-light windows with reticulated tracery appear on the east and west walls. The contemporary gabled porch features a double-chamfered pointed outer doorway with hoodmould and single trefoil-headed windows to its side walls.

The chancel's south side was largely rebuilt in the 19th century and displays two two-light windows similar to those in the south aisle, with scrolled and lozenge-shaped label-stops. The east window, constructed in 1843, contains three lights with reticulated tracery and a hoodmould, with the jambs of an earlier large infilled window visible on either side. A 19th-century cross adorns the gable. The roughly finished north side has two-light windows similar to those on the south, positioned either side of a segmental-pointed doorway with a mid-19th-century Gothic traceried door. To the right of this is the head of an infilled 17th-century doorway with wedged voussoirs and a projecting keystone. A 14th-century cinquefoil-headed gabled tomb canopy to the east of the 19th-century doorway houses a stone slab carved with a foliated cross, which was largely worn away at the time of resurvey in July 1987.

Interior

The south doorway is a 19th-century double-chamfered pointed design with a hoodmould. The 14th-century north nave arcade comprises four bays with octagonal piers, pointed double-chamfered arches, moulded capitals, and chamfered plinths. A 19th-century copy of the same arcade exists to the south. To the east of the east arch on the north side is a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway to the former rood loft, below which is a trefoil-headed window with a groove for former glazing and a square recess directly beneath it.

The chancel arch appears to be 19th-century and features pointed double-chamfered moulding with semi-circular responds, moulded plinths, and nail-head ornament to the capitals. The outline of a former steep-pitched nave roof is visible above it. The tower arch is pointed with two orders of concave mouldings. A 19th-century trefoil-headed arch pierces the wall to the east of the east arch of the south arcade. Two 19th-century trefoil-headed sedilia and a piscina with credence shelf occupy the south wall of the chancel. A 14th-century pointed Easter Sepulchre sits opposite, with an infilled rectangular recess in the south wall nearby.

The nave features a low-pitched tie beam roof in seven bays with short braced wall-posts on head corbels. The eaves line of a former roof remains visible below. Gilded bosses mark the intersection of panels. A painted inscription on the north wall records its construction: "THE NEW ROOF / GEORGE WILLIAM BROOKS / Church-Wardens / 1774". Contemporary lean-to aisle roofs feature painted bosses, with the common rafters of the north roof plastered over. The chancel has a 19th-century arch-braced roof in four bays with billet moulding to the wall-plate and stone corbels carved as angels.

The seating dates to 1852-3. Bench ends are of pale composition stone with blind tracery patterns and poppy heads. Two areas of seating in the nave and the choir stalls are entirely constructed of stone with blind tracery patterns. A contemporary square stone pulpit also displays blind tracery patterns and pierced quatrefoils to the top.

A 13th-century circular font with a moulded plinth remains in place. Stone-flag flooring covers the nave and aisles, with 19th-century encaustic tiles in the chancel, including under the raised sanctuary. A mid-19th-century stone reredos sits above a contemporary wooden altar table painted with panels of saints and angels in circular and pointed recesses. An elaborate 19th-century Gothic-style brass chandelier hangs from the roof, and brass altar rails of 1885 are present. Stained glass throughout is largely from 1852-3, though a vivid east window dates to 1843.

Monuments

A brass plate to Katherine James (d.1588) is located in the Easter Sepulchre on the north wall of the chancel, showing her kneeling figure with three children. To the west of the doorway stands a memorial to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Samuel Davies (d.1851) by R. Physick of London, depicting a mourning soldier leaning on a sarcophagus. A collection of 18th-century wall memorials and cartouches adorns the walls, including one with scrolls and cherubs to Reverend William Dowdeswell (d.1711), and an 18th-century hatchment is displayed in the tower.