Church Of St Andrew

This parish church has origins in the 12th century with extensive 14th-century work. Money was bequeathed in 1443 for the north aisle and in 1541 for the tower. The building underwent 17th-century alterations, a vestry was added in 1824 by Reverend John Hall, and 19th-century restoration and alterations followed. The tower is constructed in sandstone and limestone ashlar, the south aisle and chapel in roughly squared rubble with stone dressings and ashlar parapets, the south porch in squared rubble with limestone ashlar south wall and parapet, and the chancel and north aisle, porch and chapel in coursed sandstone rubble with limestone dressings. The roofs are lead with a cross finial to the chancel.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, south and north chapels, a north-east vestry and chancel. Some Norman work survives around the south doorway, and the south arcade and north-east respond of the south chapel are Early English. Otherwise, the building displays Perpendicular style work from different periods.

The Tower

The four-stage tower has a west door with pointed arch, hood mould and block stops, a surround of two hollow-moulded orders and a central order with slender shafts to the sides, and a large five-light west window. The second and third stages have two-light windows on all sides—lattice-glazed at the second stage and with pierced stone tracery at the third stage except for plain glazing to the east. The fourth stage has two-light windows with bell-louvres on each side. A stair turret to the north-east features string courses, lancets and a pierced stone tracery parapet. The tower has a plinth, string courses, weathered setback buttresses, a cornice with fine gargoyles, and a pierced stone tracery parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. A clock is set at the third stage on the south side.

South Aisle and Porch

The three-bay south aisle has two four-light windows to the south and one to the west with trefoil-headed lights and hood moulds, a plain parapet and coping broken forward over the buttresses. The central bay contains a two-storey south porch with a pointed arched door and surround of three hollow-moulded orders, slender jamb shafts, and a hood mould with 19th-century mask stops. Above is a two-light window with cusped trefoil heads, a cornice, parapet and coping, and an image niche to the south containing a 19th-century image. The porch has weathered diagonal buttresses and a three-sided stair turret in the angle with the aisle to the west. Gargoyles appear at the cornice east and west, there is a blocked first-floor east window, and a scratch dial without gnomon is set to the south.

South Chapel

The south chapel has a four-light east window with pointed arch, hood mould with mask stops. To the left is a bolection-moulded architrave with scallop-shell keystone and floating cornice, framing a memorial tablet with worn-away inscription. The four-light south window has a Tudor arch, hood mould and mask stops. A four-light mullioned window with round-headed lights of 17th-century date formerly lit a chapel gallery. The chapel has a weathered diagonal buttress, plinth, a cornice with shield to the south and rosette to the east, and a pierced stone tracery parapet with pinnacles.

North Aisle and Porch

The four-bay north aisle has three four-light windows with pointed segmental heads and hood moulds, a similar three-light west window, plinth, weathered diagonal buttresses, and a cornice with fine gargoyles including an anthropophagus to the west. The parapet is embattled. The second bay from the west contains a two-storey north porch with a depressed four-centred arched doorway with two jamb shafts to each side, hood mould with block stops, and a two-light window above with hood mould with angel stops. A three-sided stair turret to the east has an embattled parapet, weathered diagonal buttresses, and a cornice carried round the stair turret. The pierced stone tracery parapet has crocketed pinnacles with a carved figure at the base of the central pinnacle and small gargoyles.

North Chapel and Chancel

The north chapel has a two-light 19th-century west window with hood mould, a pointed arched 19th-century north door, moulded plinth, cornice and embattled parapet. The chancel has a two-light south window with pointed segmental head, a cornice with bead moulding under the eaves along part of the south wall only, and a clasping buttress to the south-east. The three-light 19th-century east window has angel stops to the hood mould and ogee-headed lights. Raised coped verges and kneelers complete the chancel exterior.

Interior

The tower interior has a pointed arched door to the stair turret, a 19th-century framed ceiling in nine panels with moulded ribs and carved bosses, and a high pointed arch to the nave with simple broad two-wave moulding. The nave has a ten-bay 19th-century roof of arched-brace and collar, corbels to braces, wall-plate, and bosses probably earlier and reset at the centre of the arched-braces.

The south arcade of four bays has hexagonal piers with pointed arches and mask corbels to the east. The four-bay north arcade has a hexagonal east pier; the others have four shafts at corners with wave-mould between and pointed arches. A wide pointed arch opens to the chancel.

The south aisle contains a piscina in the south wall and a five-bay roof of very shallow pitch with brattished wall-plates, moulded tie-beams, principal rafters, and short king-posts with carved wooden tracery between ties and rafters—a 19th-century reconstruction. A pointed arch opens to the south chapel. The south porch has stone benches, a pointed segmental headed door to the stair turret and upper door to the former chamber, and a two-bay roof of shallow pitch with arched-braces rising from stone mask corbels. A trefoil-headed image niche is set above the fine door, which has elaborate strap hinges, segmental head, plain jambs and imposts at string course level, upper segmental head, and an inner draw-bar.

The south chapel has a two-bay roof as in the south aisle and bosses on the wall-plate. The north aisle (narrower than the south) has a four-bay roof pitched against the nave with round-arched-braces rising from 19th-century stone mask corbels, principal rafters, one moulded purlin, and coved wall-plate. A pointed arch opens to the north chapel, with the north pier matching those in the north arcade. The interior of the north porch is not accessible but has a similar door to the south.

The north chapel has a four-bay shallow pitched roof with principal rafters, one purlin and ridge purlin, and braces at corners rising from angel corbels. An ogee-arched piscina is set in the south wall. A pointed four-light unglazed east window (formerly an external wall) opens to the vestry, which is entered from the chancel. Pointed arched openings connect the north chapel to the chancel and the vestry to the chancel.

The chancel contains a piscina in the south wall and a wagon roof, previously ceiled, with moulded ridge purlin bearing large painted bosses, wall-plate over orders to north and south chapels with angel corbels, and mask corbels to the east.

Fittings and Monuments

In the south aisle stands a circular Norman font with fluted concave bowl and convex base. A rood screen stretches across the aisles and nave. Fine Royal Arms are displayed over the chancel arch with 17th-century style balusters to the sides. A fine 19th-century carved wooden pulpit and a lectern probably made from mediaeval bench-ends are notable features. A constable's staff from circa 1845 is displayed in a showcase in the north aisle, and brass candelabra hang in the nave.

The north chapel contains fine effigies on a carved tomb-chest to Sir John and Lady St Loe, circa 1450. A wooden painted effigy in a south aisle recess, allegedly to Sir John de Hauteville, is probably of the late 16th century. The south chapel houses a fine monument to Edward Baber (died 1578) and his wife (died 1601), with effigies on a tomb-chest and a shallow coffered arch over with two cherubs named Labor and Quies.

In the chancel are a marble tablet to Richard Jones (1692), a large marble tablet to the Jones family (early 17th century), an unidentified Baroque stone monument with Corinthian columns, and a brass plate on the floor to Mary Clarke (1705) and Elizabeth Cory (1690). In the vestry, a large marble tablet with urn (1761) has an illegible inscription.

The south aisle contains a marble tablet with urn and cherub to Sarah Abraham (1801), a marble tablet with weeping putti to Samuel Collins (1712/13), a marble tablet with broken column to Richard Tyson (1820), and an early 19th-century marble tablet to Elizabeth Henrietta.

The north chapel monuments include a marble monument with pediment to Hodges Strachey (1716), a marble monument to Henry Strachey (1810) by J. Bacon Junior of London, an early 19th-century stone Perpendicular tablet to William Bush (1827), a marble tablet to Anne Mullins (1848) by Tyley of Bristol, a baroque stone tablet to Sarah Lyde (1662), and a marble tablet to Edward Plumley (1842).

Fragments of mediaeval glass survive in the south window of the south chapel. There was formerly a bridge between the Old School Room and the south chapel to an upper gallery. The gallery was removed when the Baber monument was erected, and the bridge is said to have been demolished later.