Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

An Anglican parish church in Etchilhampton village, dating to the early 14th century and substantially restored in 1866. A vestry was added in 1868–9 by Weaver of Devizes. The building is constructed of malmstone with limestone dressings. The roof is 20th-century tiles, except for the chancel which retains sarsen with 19th-century tiles and trefoiled ridges.

The church comprises a nave with south porch and a chancel with north vestry. The nave features two-light trefoiled windows with square heads and a four-light reticulated west window. An early 14th-century south door has the remains of a niche above it, formerly containing a figure of St Anne. A notable north-west buttress carries three nodding ogee niches with crenellated corner towers supporting winged angels, all set on carved corbels. Two further buttresses flank the west end, and a raised bellcote of two lights with gabled top rises above. The chancel displays paired trefoiled lights in deep reveals and a three-light Geometric east window. The vestry, positioned at right angles to the chancel axis, has a canted end and trefoiled lights. The south porch, rebuilt in 1866, features narrow lights on a sarsen sill wall with timber tracery and shaped barge boards in the gable.

Inside, the nave is plastered and has a probable 16th-century roof of four bays with tie and crown post trusses carrying a double purlin roof with cusped wind braces. The early 14th-century chancel arch retains residual ballflowers on the outer arch and rosettes on the impost capitals. The chancel is of ashlar with a two-bay roof featuring heavy wind braces between intermediate rafters. A tomb recess is set in the north wall, flanked by trefoiled niches beside the east window.

The font dates to the late 12th century and has a bowl with small trumpet scallops at its base, raised on a 19th-century column drum. Box pews line the rear of the nave, early 18th-century, with further examples of later 18th-century date, much restored, positioned forward. A 19th-century oak pulpit stands on a stone column. The chancel contains 19th-century fittings.

In the chancel north wall is a late 14th-century limestone chest tomb with effigies of a knight in armour and his lady. The knight's head rests on a shield and his feet on a lion; the lady has a cushion. Twelve weepers are carved below in pairs between buttresses, two pairs carrying headdresses and two carrying flowers. This monument is said to be of the Malwyn family. A 17th-century framed limestone panel shows a strapwork cartouche and arms above a central marble plaque inscribed to Gertrude Ernle, died 1662. An 18th-century tablet of various marbles and a panel with crest and apron to Margaret Bailey, died 1788, are also present. A 19th-century white marble on grey tablet by Harrison of Devizes commemorates Louisa Hitchcock, died 1840, and Elizabeth, with a panel flanked by inverted torches and a gable with acroteria above. Another tablet in white marble on grey honours the fallen of the Great War. A wall tablet in white and grey marbles with a corniced panel and tall obelisk above commemorates James Gibbs, died 1792.

On the south side are two 19th-century wall tablets in white on grey marbles: the upper features a draped urn above a cushioned tablet between pilasters for Edmund Hitchcock, died 1832, and his wife, with a simpler panel below for Jane Hitchcock, a child who died in 1829. A tablet in white marble on grey with a double panel between fluted pilasters, reeded fascia and an urn against a gable above, records Richard Giddings, died 1796, and later family members. Externally, a limestone shield on the north side, shaped and mounted on a bracket corbel, bears an illegible inscription.

A fine limestone panel of the Archangel Gabriel in a recess of a blocked north door shows naive proportions within a nogging ogee, with flowers in the moulding to the left. This may be part of a medieval Annunciation scene from a reredos. A panelled and carved 18th-century cupboard survives as church furniture.