Church Of St Andrew, Malmesbury Park

The Church of St Andrew was built between 1891 and 1900 by Julius Alfred Chatwin & Sons of Birmingham, working jointly with Bournemouth architect Sidney Tugwell. The main parts of the church – the chancel, nave, and transepts – were constructed between 1891 and 1892, with the aisles and an apsidal baptistry added between 1899 and 1900. Built of rock-faced Purbeck stone with freestone dressings and a red tiled roof, the church is an example of the Decorated style.

The plan comprises a high nave with lower passage aisles, low transepts, a chancel, a prominent baptistry with an apse, west and east porches, and a vestry at the northeast end. The exterior features buttresses and windows with free Decorated and flamboyant tracery, including a window of stepped triplet lancets to the chancel. The nave clerestory has two-light tracery windows, and the south aisle has high lancet windows while the north aisle has single lancet windows. A steeply pitched hipped tile roof covers the baptistry apse. The porches have pointed arches with carved rosettes and pairs of timber doors with decorative iron hinges. The transepts are two bays wide with lancet windows. The vestry has mullioned and transomed windows with coloured glass.

Inside, the walls are lined with polychromatic buff brick, with dressings of ashlar and red brick. The chancel has a two-centred arch supported by foliage corbels, and the north window lancets are recessed within a large blind arch with dogtooth ornament. The nave has ashlar octagonal piers supporting arcades with stepped red brick arches. The baptistery arch lacks capitals. A stone font with a carved bowl on a stem with shafts is present, alongside marble angel statues on corbels to each side of the font. A timber drum pulpit with two tiers of panelling is also present, as are late 20th century chairs in the nave. The nave roof is a crown post design carried on stone wall shafts.

The church is considered a competent example of its date, despite its rather conservative design. The interior detailing, featuring the contrasting use of polychromatic buff brick, ashlar, and red brick, is particularly well executed, and the building has seen few alterations.