Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church largely dating to the 15th century, with a north chapel built between 1610 and 1620, a west tower from 1800 and 1894, and a general restoration in 1894. The chapel was likely constructed for Sir Robert Napier, and the chancel and aisle were restored by H.C. Sturt. It is constructed of walls made of banded flint and rubble, and rubble with Ham Hill stone ashlar dressings, the chapel being entirely ashlar. The roofs are tiled, with stone copings and finials, with stone slate verges.

The church’s plan incorporates a chancel, nave, west tower, and north chapel. The two-stage west tower features a string course with an embattled parapet and crocketted pinnacles. The exterior includes gargoyles and stylized foliage, angle pilaster strips, a blind 2-centred arch to the north and south, a moulded 19th-century west door, and 2-centred windows with pierced stone panels. The tower's walls have 19th-century buttresses with carved gabled tops, a central 19th-century 4-centred, 3-light window, and flanking 15th-century 2-light windows within 2-centred heads. The chancel’s south wall is punctuated by two square-headed, 2-light Perpendicular windows, flanking a 2-centred door, and an east window of 3-lights with Perpendicular tracery. The north window is similarly designed. The chapel’s north window consists of 5 lights with 4-centred heads, the central one raised and featuring a stepped, returned label. The west window has 4 4-centred lights with a square head and ovolo-moulded mullions. The west door is also 4-centred. A 2-light window with Perpendicular tracery sits on the south side of the nave.

Inside, a moulded 2-centred chancel arch has continuous jambs, and the chapel has a moulded, elliptical arch. The tower arch is partly concealed with flat responds. The church has scissor-braced roofs, with cusping to the nave and chancel springing from carved corbels. The chapel roof showcases arch-braced cambered collar beams springing from a wall-plate with carved foliage. Seating includes carved bench ends dating from 1897, and a 19th-century octagonal pulpit is present. A piscina with a 2-centred head is located in the nave. The octagonal 15th-century font sits on a modern base and features quatrefoils with carving. A selection of 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th-century monuments are found throughout the church, notably to the Napier family in the chapel, with a broken pediment on Corinthian columns flanked by weepers designed by Robert Taylor senior in the early 18th century, and to Charles Churchill from 1714 in the nave, featuring massed trophies of arms. Some 15th-century glass remains in the nave.