Church of St Andrew and boundary walls

Church of St Andrew and boundary walls

This is an Anglican church built in two distinct phases. The initial construction took place between 1883 and 1884 by architects James Hicks and John Pollard Seddon. The building was later extended and completed between 1936 and 1938 following an updated design of 1927 by RF Wheatly of the firm Cowell, Drewitt and Wheatly of Truro.

Materials and Construction

The western end of the church is constructed of partly-coursed and rubble pink Carn Marth granite with grey granite ashlar quoins. Bath stone from the Pictor quarries in Wiltshire is used for fine external dressings. The eastern end is also of Carn Marth stone, snecked and regularly coursed with ashlar Bath stone dressings. The roof is slate. Internally, dressings are in local granite and Wild Duck elvan, while the chancel and nave facings are in Bath stone. The arcade columns are constructed from local Cornish granite.

Plan and Layout

The church is planned with an aisled nave of four bays. Due to the sloping topography of the site, the west end basement is accessed at street level. The building was extended by three bays to the east with the addition of a north transept, south sacristy, Lady Chapel, and chancel, creating a fat cruciform plan overall.

Exterior: Western Section (1883-1884)

The western part is designed in a free Early English style. The church sits on a site sloping down from east to west, with the main elevation being the west gable facing Clinton Road. This elevation features angle buttresses dated '18' and '83' to the left and right respectively, flanking a porch to the basement. The porch is a shallow gabled projection containing a square-headed doorway set under a two-centred arch moulded in two orders. A band of blind arcading flanks the gable and runs out to the buttresses, above which is a hipped roof with brattishing on the eaves and a dentilled cornice. Flanking the porch are small coupled lancets. Above the porch is a large two-centred-arched five-light window with multifoil circular tracery in the head and a hoodmould. The gable end is banded polychrome rubble up to the weathered sill-band of a stepped triple-lancet in the apex, which is coped with kneelers. Slightly set back on each side are stepped parapets to the west ends of the aisles.

Exterior: North and South Elevations

The north and south elevations comprise a seven-bay nave and aisles, with four bays to the west and three added to the east. The north elevation has a bridge with steps leading to a two-centred doorway in the western bay. The buttressed aisles have small windows of two arched lights with trefoils in the head, and the basement has windows of two shouldered lights. At the eastern end is a double doorway set in a segmental arch. Stepped back above the aisle, the western bays of the nave are defined by pilasters each with stepped triple lancets, cusped and flanked by two lights, under depressed two-centred arches. The added eastern bays differ in design: the nave windows are composed of simple lancets with ashlar surrounds.

Exterior: Eastern Section (1938)

The eastern part was completed in a strict Early English style in 1938. At the east end on the north side, the transept is buttressed and has a single tall lancet window in the gable wall; an octagonal turret sits at the junction of the nave and transept roofs. The two-bay chancel, in similar style, has two lancet windows on each side and an east window of three cusped lancets. Below the window is a stone block inscribed A M D G / AD 1937 with a central carved cross. On the south side the Lady Chapel and sacristy are single-storey with flat roofs.

Interior

The church is entered at the north-west through a small porch and panelled double-doors. The aisles comprise seven-bay arcades of two-centred arches slightly set back behind granite piers. The piers are quatrefoil in section, rising to cylindrical caps at the springing points, from which inner shafts continue as engaged coupled columns terminating in massive roughly-hewn granite capitals below the level of the nave's clerestorey windows. The windows are set back within an arcade of two-centred arches, between which the line of the piers is continued as sunk slender coupled shafts. In the added eastern bays, a simplified version of this design is executed in ashlar. The aisles have paired windows within pointed-arch reveals. Two of the north aisle windows depict Mary and Martha (1971) and the Raising of Lazarus (1973). The south aisle windows are mainly memorials to those lost in the First World War.

The timber pulpit is octagonal with carvings of the saints, mounted on a clustered polished green-granite base (possibly serpentine) with ashlar capitals and a short flight of ashlar steps. At the west end is an elaborate font in coloured marble and Caen stone, dating to 1884 and possibly designed by Seddon, with a timber cover of 1927. It is mounted on a stepped plinth in front of a three-bay arcade opening onto steps which descend to the basement. The nave ceiling is boarded in pitch pine with simple ribs and king-post trusses. Pews are stained pine.

The chancel has plastered walls with Bath stone dressings, and the ceiling has a grid of decorative painted plasterwork. The east window depicts Carn Brea and the tower of the Church of St Euny at Wheal Euny, and Redruth town clock in the lower part; with Christ and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel above. Below is a reredos of the Crucifixion flanked by carvings of St Andrew, St Christopher, St Uny and St Ninian. Below the reredos is an Agnus Dei (the lamb and flag, also the symbol of Redruth). The high altar is of Ham Hill stone with a Delabole slate mensa. The sanctuary panelling and choir stalls are of stained pine. The floor is slate slabs.

The Lady Chapel has a low vaulted ceiling at its east end and a flat ceiling to the western part; the two bays are defined by a segmental arch to the ceiling. Both have painted decorative plaster decoration. The chapel contains memorial lancet windows with plain surrounds and 20th-century stained glass.

The basement runs half the length of the nave and mirrors the 19th-century phase of the building. It is accessed from stairs at the west end of the nave and from the west door. Either side of a stair lobby are two small rooms, now used as an office and toilets. Each has a 19th-century folding screen with a glazed overlight; the southern screen has cupboards built against it. The ceiling (the floor of the nave) is of steel-beam construction. A stage occupies the eastern end.

Boundary Walls and Entrances

A stepped, low granite rubble wall with granite ashlar copings defines the street boundaries on the north and west sides. Opposite the west entrance to the church, the street entrance is defined by quoins with caps carved with a cross motif. The same feature is used at the three entrances on the north side, which have decorative wrought-iron gates.