Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church with 12th-century origins, mostly rebuilt in the 15th century. The ornate south (Hungerford) chapel was built in 1442 for Walter, Lord Hungerford, Lord High Treasurer to Henry VI. The tower has a 14th-century base but was rebuilt in Gothic Survival style in 1633. The church was restored and enlarged between 1875 and 1878 by R Darley.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar and coursed rubblestone with a slate roof. It comprises a 5-bay aisled nave with a west tower, south Hungerford chapel, and a north-east vestry added in 1907.

The church is surrounded by a coved string course below a castellated parapet and a moulded plinth (except at the chancel). The 19th-century rubblestone chancel has a 5-light Perpendicular-style east window above three plain off-set buttresses. The 19th-century north-east vestry features finely-detailed leading to 3-light windows on the east and north sides. The west front has a crocketed niche over a projecting rectangular porch with a swept hipped stone slate roof supported by 13th-style engaged columns below curved corbelling. The planked door is set in a 2-centred basket-arched architrave and has Art Nouveau-style ornamented wrought-iron hinges. The 19th-century 5-bay north aisle has a castellated parapet with off-set buttresses articulating pointed-arched 4-light windows and a gabled doorcase at the west end.

The tower at the west end of the 19th-century nave comprises three stages. The lower stage dates to the 14th century, while the upper stages were rebuilt in 1633. It has clasping buttresses, lancet windows to the returns of the lower stages, 2-light pointed-arched louvred bell openings, a pierced parapet with crocketed finials, and an octagonal spire with gablets to the centre of each facet.

The 3-bay 15th-century Hungerford Chapel (baptistry) has a richly moulded plinth and string course, with four 4-light Perpendicular windows (two to the south and one to each return). Diagonal and central buttresses have elaborately panelled and crocketed finials. The planked-and-studded south door is set in a shallow pointed-arched architrave within a flat-arched moulded surround. The sill of the window to the east of the door was lowered in the 19th century to accommodate a large memorial window. The right return has a flat-arched 3-light window with label mould and diagonal square stops, which would have lit the area below the former gallery. The south-east corner features a head gargoyle.

The 3-bay 15th-century south-east chapel (Lady Chapel) has a richly carved parapet of square quatrefoiled panels with foliate bosses to the centres and carved heads to the string course. Each merlon of the castellation has a similar larger panel, and the finial to the east gable end is a lion sejant affronte. In the angle with the chancel is a small pointed-arched door.

The interior roof was raised and the clerestory inserted in 1875–78; the church was re-roofed in 1902. The north chapel contains a repositioned Norman chancel arch with chevron moulding and scalloped capitals to paired engaged columns. To the east of the arch is a reset 12th-century window, originally from the north wall of the nave. The south wall has an arched recess articulated by bosses, possibly housing a former tomb.

The early 18th-century altar rail has barley-sugar-twist balusters, a moulded rail and plinth. The floor is diagonally-laid slate and limestone flags, possibly early 18th-century. The five-bay nave arcades are in Perpendicular style with thin piers and arch-braced king-post roofs on head corbels. The 1752 organ by Seede of Bristol, repositioned to the east end of the north aisle, has a fine carved oak Baroque case with crowned trumpeting angels flanking a segmental pediment and pulvinated frieze. The north aisle has leaded windows, and the south aisle features 19th-century stained glass. The 1902 screen to the east end was carved from timber of the former roof.

The square baptistry at the centre of the south aisle was rebuilt in 1442 by Walter, Lord Hungerford. It has a 4-centred arch higher than the wallplate of the aisle. A plan of 1787 shows it was formerly floored to form the women's gallery. The sill of the window to the east of the south door was lowered in the late 19th century to accommodate a large stained-glass memorial window. The baptistry houses the chest tomb, dated 1570, of Andrew and Sir Edward Baynton of Rowden, who commanded the Parliamentary forces in Wiltshire during the Civil War.

The east wall displays six inscribed marble panels dating from 1631 to 1689. Fronting the chancel arch is an elaborate medieval-style wooden rood screen of circa 1920, comprising three semicircular arches below ribbed vaulting, framed by slender reeded columns and lintel. It is a memorial to parishioners who died in the 1914–18 war. At the east end, the pitch of the former roof is visible in the stonework.

Notable memorials include a fine monument at the west end of the south aisle to Sir Gilbert Pryn Knight (died 1627), who married Mary, eldest daughter of Jayne Davies. The monument features two kneeling figures facing each other; the lower section has five kneeling children carrying skulls, with two daughters in ruffs kneeling on a projecting platform. The monument is flanked by pilasters and obelisks supported by putti, and is crowned by an entablature with a shield and helmets flanked by urns, with two long inscriptions below. Four memorial panels in the tower date from 1664 to 1718. In the south-east corner is a repositioned medieval relief carving of a figure of unknown origin, approximately 2 metres high.

The restoration of 1875–78 included extending the chancel by 6 metres, adding a clerestory, rebuilding the nave, and repositioning the Norman arch and the organ.