Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Anglican parish church with a 14th-century nave, tower arch and north doorway, 15th-century chancel and nave refenestration, 16th-century tower rebuild and south aisle. The church underwent restoration in 1855 under architect T H Wyatt. It is constructed of coursed Portland rubble with ashlar dressings, with lead roof to the nave and aisle and slate to the chancel and north porch.

The plan comprises a wide nave without clerestory, a west tower and north porch, a narrower chancel with steep roof, and a south aisle. The square tower is in two stages with moulded string and parapet course, bold crenellations and four gargoyles, short set-back buttresses with two offsets to the west, and deep plinth. The west doorway is in a high pointed arch with 14th-century roll-mould surround beneath a two-light 14th-century cusped window. The top stage has a two-light louvered cusped window to each face; the north side also has a small rectangular light at mid string level and a clock face. The aisle has crenellations on three sides matching those of the tower, and three-light segmental-headed 15th-century windows in a wide casement moulding with labels to stops. The eastern and western windows are cusped, but the two southern windows are uncusped. The central south doorway, now blocked, has mouldings matching the west doorway, with a diagonal buttress to its left and three square buttresses. Two square downpipes have hopper-heads dated 1855. The chancel has high coped gables with terminal stone crosses and a stone eaves course each side. The three-light south window is under a square label course, and the east window is three-light with casement mould. The chancel lacks a plinth. A 20th-century vestry stands north of the chancel with flat roof, a three-light window to the east, five-light to the north, and a sunk panel with door and single light to the west. The north side of the nave has a stone eaves course and a three-light cusped window each side of the porch; that to the left of the porch has small carved figures as label stops, whilst the other has square stops. The porch has a coped gable and stone eaves course, with a 14th-century outer doorway on responds with foliage capitals, descending one step to a stone floor with stone benches each side. The inner door is 19th-century plank with strap hinges beneath a plain chamfered arch. To the right are remains of a medieval stoup, and in the left wall is a small image niche. Adjacent to the west end of the aisle is a flight of stairs to an underground flat-roofed boiler house, with a free-standing asbestos-cement flue.

The interior comprises a wide four-bay nave with plastered walls, a heavy 14th-century double-chamfered tower arch, chancel arch with a wide double wave to keel edge, and arcade of four-centred arches on piers of four shafts and four hollows. The roof is 19th century in low pitch, with principals carried on corbels. The stone floor includes several large memorial slabs at the east end. The south aisle has a 19th-century lean-to roof and stone floor. In both nave and aisle, the western window has a slender colonnette to the rear arch, and in the eastern window mouldings are carried down to the sills. An opening for the former rood remains to the right of the chancel arch, and the upper part of the stone stair remains in the aisle. The upper part of the south doorway opening survives as a niche above the lower blocking. The chancel, raised on two plus two steps, has a mid-19th century painted panelled barrel ceiling and coloured encaustic tile floor. A broad squint opens from the south aisle, and a door to the vestry is positioned here.

The chancel east window was replaced after destruction during the Second World War. The south window contains a central panel commemorating Constance Grace Pinwill Conway, died 1921 aged 13, incorporating musical notes. The glass was formerly in Weymouth College Chapel and was designed by Catherine Ewbank. Adjacent to the pulpit is a pictorial window commemorating Charles Gaskell Falkner, died 1932, inserted in 1949 and made by Stammers of York.

The pews are plain pine. The octagonal pulpit, communion rail and reredos date to circa 1930 and were made by Reverend C F Metcalf. A square Purbeck marble font bowl of circa 1200 is set on a retooled base.

Monuments include a white marble tablet on black marble ground on the north chancel wall commemorating Octavius Piers, 32 years pastor, died 1848, by Haggett. To the north of the altar is a deep square recess in a 19th-century projecting stone frame containing an early 17th-century kneeling figure with some remains of colour, above a stone plaque with naive lettering commemorating an unnamed vicar who died in 1614 aged 32. In the aisle is a limestone monument to Charles Gill, died 1859, in the form of an upright vesica piscis.