Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a church of substantial medieval date, with major phases of construction spanning the late 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1852 by G.E. Street. The building is constructed of roughcast limestone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings, and features copper roofs. It comprises a chancel, north vestry, nave, south aisle, south porch and west tower.

The chancel is probably 13th-century and has shallow ashlar buttresses at its angles. It is now capped by a plain 15th-century parapet and lit by 15th-century windows: the east window is four-centred arched with three lights and elaborate drop tracery; the south windows are square-headed with two and four lights, similar tracery, labels and head stops. A 15th-century priest's door is also present.

The south aisle is narrow and richly detailed in the 14th-century style, with a pinnacled diagonal buttress bearing an ogee-canopied image niche, a corbel table of grotesque heads and square flowers extending around the contemporary porch, a two-light window to the right of the porch with flowing tracery and square flowers around the arch, and an unusual three-light window to the left with a segmental arch, dense drop tracery and elaborate headstops—one of which depicts an oak branch.

The two-storey porch has an outer arch of two chamfered orders beneath an ogee lancet, a sundial on the gable, and eroded corner pinnacles. It shelters a fine late 12th-century doorway of two orders (beakhead and chevron) with an outer band of chevron, an elaborate carved tympanum, and detached jamb shafts with scalloped capitals.

A 15th-century clerestory on the north side of the nave contains two-light square-headed windows with labels. The north side of the nave is 15th-century and features a high moulded ashlar plinth and stepped buttresses.

The west tower is a three-stage ashlar structure, also 15th-century, with a similar plinth, diagonal buttresses, and a crenellated parapet topped by eight crocketed pinnacles. Its west window has three lights with drop tracery, deeply recessed in a four-centre-arched casement mould. The bell chamber has two-light Y-traceried transomed openings. Below the parapet stand eight large winged gargoyles.

Interior: The chancel contains a small canopied piscina with credence shelf and some original colouring, set into the splay of a 15th-century window. The shallow kingpost roof is probably early 19th-century but has small pendants of 17th-century character. The 13th-century chancel arch has three chamfered orders and attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The three-bay nave arcade is probably contemporary and comprises two orders with circular columns and similar mouldings. The tall tower arch is 15th-century with three continuous chamfered orders.

The south aisle contains an ogee-headed 14th-century piscina with credence shelf. The 15th-century north door incorporates re-used 12th-century chevron in its rear arch. The nave roof, with curved braces rising from wall posts to tiebeams, is dated 1814 but may be considerably earlier. The south aisle roof is mid 19th-century.

Fittings include a panelled octagonal 15th-century font, a richly carved traceried 15th-century wood screen (repainted in 1862), and a contemporary canopy fixed to the nave roof with a panelled cove and carved bosses that may retain original colouring. Pews, pulpit and other fittings are mostly 19th-century. The coloured glass is mainly 19th-century with repetitive patterns, but includes five 15th-century roundels in a south aisle window. A brass of James Battersby (died 1522) is present.