Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Durnford

This is an Anglican parish church of exceptional architectural and historical interest, dating from the late 12th century through the 16th century, with no major restoration work undertaken in the 19th century.

The exterior is built of rendered flint with white limestone and greensand dressings, and is covered by a tiled roof. The church comprises a four-bay nave of the 12th century, an early 13th-century two-bay chancel that was partly rebuilt in the 13th century, and a 13th-century tower. Late 15th- or 16th-century porches exist on the north and south sides; the north porch was rebuilt in brick, probably in the early 19th century.

The nave and chancel are adorned with pilaster buttresses that are splayed at their base; those to the east were altered in the 14th century to become offset buttresses. The nave contains 15th-century two-light windows with square heads and cusping, and two 16th-century timber windows with leaded glazing on the north side. The chancel features lancet windows, including triple lancets at the east end gathered under a single arch, and a small north low-side window. The south chancel wall and south-east corner have been rebuilt and incorporate a 15th-century two-light window and a shouldered priest's door.

The north porch, originally timber-framed, has side walls now rebuilt in brick with open cusped barge boards. The south porch remains timber-framed on flint sills, with posts featuring angle braces to tie-beams and rafters with collars; the central wall posts have pyramid chamfer stops.

The tower consists of two stages, with two-light bell openings and a parapet on a corbel table. The north door features a horizontal chevron order with a carved hoodmould, a defaced mask at the apex, scalloped capitals with missing nook shafts, and a shuttlecock motif around the tympanum executed in contrasted white and green stone. The south door displays nailhead and horizontal chevron orders with capitals on nook shafts (one missing), chevron around the tympanum covered with basketwork in contrasted white and green stones, a shouldered arch, and mass dials on the jambs.

The interior presents a wide nave with a trussed rafter roof divided into three bays by chamfered ties. The walls are plastered and decorated with wall paintings. The chancel arch has a horizontal chevron outer order on capitals carved with grotesque dove and owl motifs. Tall arches open to the north and south doors, and a pointed tower arch of two orders stands nearby. A blind inner arch of an early 12th-century window survives on the south side. An 18th-century organ gallery rests on two Corinthian columns with fielded panelling to the balcony front. The chancel has barrel-vaulted rafters with a tie-beam, and pointed rere-arches to the window embrasures. Two aumbries are set into the east wall. The floor is flagged. Wall paintings include a generalised swirl pattern in red line work in the nave, a St Christopher (?) and Doom (?) over the chancel arch on the south wall, marbling on the east end of the north wall and a figure in a niche within the embrasure of the north window, and formal flowers on red-lined masonry with a top frieze on the east wall of the chancel. The paintings are not in well-preserved condition.

The church contains a remarkable collection of fine fittings and furniture. A 12th-century font has a round bowl with compact interlocking arcades and scrolls. The pulpit on the south side dates to 1619 and features carved arched panels with wainscot panelling behind; it is matched by a reader's desk on the north side with a top range and open balustrade on round columns. Pulpit hangings and cushion are signed I.C 1657. A 17th-century revolving lectern has a bulbous acanthus-carved stem with a two-sided book stand; it once held the chained 'Reply to Harding's Answer' of 1565 and Jewel's 'Defence of the Apologie' (1567), now stolen. Most pews are of oak, dating to the 15th or 16th century, with panelled ends; a set of simpler earlier medieval pews remains at the back of the church. 19th-century choir stalls are also present. An elaborate traceried late 17th-century communion rail features knob finials to its stanchions. A late 16th- or 17th-century altar table displays carved runners, legs and stretchers. An iron-bound parish chest is present. The organ is by George Jackson of Oxford in a Gothic case. A framed large Royal Arms of 1678, signed by John Pile and Henry Rakings, hangs within the church. A 17th-century chair serves as the reader's desk.

The chancel contains an outstanding series of monuments. On the south side stands a limestone tomb of 1607 with a floor-standing chest and niche within a three-centred arch, pilasters and cornice, containing a pictorial brass and inscription to Edward Younge of Little Durnford with arms and fourteen children. A floor-standing limestone aedicule with attached Tuscan columns, entablature and pediment commemorates John Younge, member of the Long Parliament, who died in 1710. A large limestone wall monument with pediment, side scrolls and apron records Edward Younge, who died in 1720, and relates family and personal history. White marble tablets commemorate Louisa Harris (died 1826) by Osmund, and the Hon Katherine Harrison (died 1834). A marble plaque honours Ari Vanshaick, servant of the Earl of Malmesbury, who died in 1799. Ann Martin, servant to L. Harris, is memorialised by a marble tablet (died 1820). A white marble tablet with painted and engraved inscription commemorates C.G.V. Tryon, Keeper of the Privy Purse from 1949 to 1971, who died in 1976. A marble tablet with apron and urn over records Mrs Louise Gout, governess of Lausanne, who died in 1811. Two medieval wall tombs survive on the south side of the nave: one with an ogee-moulded canopy with broken cusping, and another with a three-centred moulded canopy over an engraved cross.

The stained glass includes reset pieces of a 15th-century bishop, a crucifixion and margin pieces in the north nave window. A pre-Reformation Angelus bell is housed in the tower.