Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a village church with a Late Norman tower, 13th-century chancel restored in 1875, and nave and aisles rebuilt in 1894–95 by W.H. Romaine-Walker.

Materials and Construction

The tower is constructed of roughly dressed ironstone rubble. The nave and aisles are of coursed and snecked ironstone, while the chancel is built in pinkish Purbeck rubble. Bath stone dressings are used externally (from Monks Park outside) and Corsham stone facings within. All roofs are tiled.

Plan and Layout

The church is planned with a west tower, a four-bay nave with two full-length aisles, and a south porch. The chancel has no chapels and is accompanied by a very narrow vestry to the north.

Exterior

The dominant feature is the short and extremely squat Late Norman tower, plain in design without buttresses or adornment. It consists of two stages marked by a sloped set-off, with a broader set-off low down on the west side only. In the lower stage is one small rectangular window on each face; the north side has a small door, originally round-headed. The belfry stage contains similar windows set in pairs. An embattled parapet, perhaps added in the 14th or 15th century, sits atop.

The aisles and nave are roofed separately under three almost even gables. The aisle side windows are in Perpendicular style, square-headed with cusped lights; their east windows are of three lights with Geometric tracery. The chancel east window is of very simple plate tracery, evidently from the 1875 restoration. The south porch is low with a simple moulded entrance arch.

Interior

The nave roof is of dark stained timber with arch-braced collar trusses and small king posts. Small dormers with quatrefoil lights sit in the valleys behind the aisle roofs, invisible from outside, functioning like a clerestory. Floors are of wood blocks with stone flagged walkways and encaustic tiles in the chancel.

The pointed tower arch to the nave, with a single chamfer, confirms the Late Norman dating. Within the tower room, the very deep splays of the windows and deep rope marks cut into the head of the tower arch are visible. The nave arcades rest on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The plain chancel arch with single chamfer and blunt point dates from the late 13th century. An inner arch of similar form sits beneath the soffit of the outer one; this may have been added as reinforcement during the 1875 restoration, when reportedly a new chancel arch was inserted 'below' the original one.

Fixtures and Fittings

The chancel fittings are simple: an altar rail with wrought-iron stands and a 17th-century-style communion table. The principal medieval fitting is the octagonal font of Purbeck marble, perhaps 12th or early 13th century, with four small cusped arches on each face, possibly cut later.

A new oak pulpit was given in 1898, featuring openwork tracery and dense leafy foliage with a stone base. The nave and aisle seating consists of pitch-pine benches of plain design from 1895. The north aisle displays Hanoverian Royal arms on canvas signed "J. Taylor fecit", probably from the later 18th century. The south aisle contains a Commandment Board painted on timber to resemble an open Bible, alongside similar Creed and Lord's Prayer painted as scrolls, all possibly dating from the 1827 enlargement. A Biblical text on a timber panel, probably 18th century, features a naive scrolled border with a cherub's head.

The east window contains stained glass of 1875 in the style of Clayton & Bell, with unusually bold perspective for the date. The south aisle east window depicts the Light of the World and saints, dated 1895. A good two-light window in the south aisle, probably circa 1895–1910, portrays St Michael and St Gabriel.

History and Alterations

The medieval structure consisted of a west tower, small nave, and chancel. In 1827, it was enlarged by the addition of 150 sittings through a west gallery and a transept-like range at right angles on the north, as large as the nave, which also had a gallery. Two small extensions flanking the east end of the nave, each containing a private pew for about 6 people, were added at unknown dates. The 1875 restoration was funded by the Fryer family, who also donated most of the glass. The Fryers were bankers and attorneys descended in the female line from the well-known Dorset smuggler Isaac Gulliver (1745–1822), through whom rumours of stored contraband attach to the church.

In 1894, the decision was made to remove the nave and north range entirely and build a new nave and aisles. A faculty was granted on 7 June 1894, and the church reopened on 31 May 1895. The village of Kinson was absorbed into Bournemouth in 1930.

The architect W.H. Romaine-Walker (1854–1940) was a London-based designer who was in partnership with A.W. Tanner from 1881 to 1896 and designed several buildings in south-east Dorset.