Church of St Andrew

This Anglican church was almost completely rebuilt in the Decorated Gothic style in 1864 by architect James Mountford Allen, with stone carving undertaken by Grassby of Dorchester. However, significant 15th-century fabric survives in the south aisle, south porch, and part of the south transept, which may be older still.

Materials and Construction

The 19th-century parts are built of squared and coursed chert with freestone dressings, while the 15th-century sections are constructed in red Devon limestone ashlar. The roofs are patterned with red and black terracotta tiles, though the nave has concrete tiles.

Plan

The church is orientated west-east and has a rectangular footprint varied by a west tower, north and south porches, north and south transepts, and a projecting sanctuary.

Exterior

Allen's design deliberately evokes architectural progression through time, with different sections reflecting different periods. The eastern end is in Early English style, the north side and tower in early Decorated, building towards the genuine 15th-century work on the south side. The gables have cross finials, and a roll-moulding runs beneath the windows. On the north and west elevations, windows feature geometrical tracery and openings have hoodmoulds with headstops. Most buttresses are angled, with some diagonal examples.

West Tower

The substantial three-stage west tower has offset diagonal buttresses. The west door, reached by polygonal stone steps, features elaborate foliate ironwork hinges and sits within an opening framed by red sandstone columns. Above is a large window with intersecting trefoil tracery. The second stage contains a narrow ogival opening surmounted by a circular clock with trefoil centre and hoodmould—a feature repeated on the tower's north face. Each face of the belfry stage has a louvred opening framed by engaged red sandstone colonnettes. The parapet is pierced with trefoils and features a corbel course with a trefoil arcade resting on carved heads. Gargoyles representing mythical beasts occupy the corners. A polygonal stair tower with pointed trefoil doorway and pyramidal roof is attached to the tower's north side, in the angle with the nave.

Nave

The four-bay nave has a clerestory with openings progressing from trefoil to quatrefoil, cinquefoil and sexfoil. A small bell-cote sits over the chancel arch at the nave's east end.

North Side

The gabled north porch has a doorway with moulded arch on engaged columns, and a boarded door with wrought iron hinges. Paired ogee-headed trefoil windows light the porch from east and west, and chevron and nailhead carving decorates the roof's cill beam. The inner doorway features paired red sandstone colonnettes with stiff-leaf capitals, and a door with elaborate hinges of different design from those on the west door.

The gabled north transept contains an elaborate window with plate tracery. The north chapel has two windows to the north separated by a door, and a large east window with intersecting tracery. A diagonal buttress of complex gabled design with offsets and small carved birds occupies the north-east corner.

East End

The east end features three lancet windows with a trefoil opening above. The vestry and organ chapel, situated between the chancel and south transept, has a south entrance and an external stack with pyramidal capping. This section has narrow windows with trefoil heads and a rose window in the east gable.

South Side

The west wall of the south transept appears to predate the 15th-century work, containing a Perpendicular window whose headstopped hoodmould is cut off to the north by the south aisle. This wall is of chert rubble. The remainder of the south transept is 19th-century with a large Perpendicular window to the south.

The 15th-century portions feature square-headed windows with cinquefoil lights, and the aisle and porch have crenellated parapets. The south wall of the south porch was largely rebuilt in the 19th century using bands of chert, replacing the door with a window matching those in the aisle. Some stonework in the aisle windows has been replaced. The south porch has setback buttresses.

Interior

The interior remains largely as built in 1864, with most original fittings designed by or forming part of James Mountford Allen's scheme. Different stones and Devon and Cornish marbles are used extensively, and the walls are rendered.

Nave and Aisles

The double-aisled nave has pointed arcades with octagonal piers, the arches defined by red sandstone borders. The western piers have foliate carved capitals. The chancel, sanctuary and aisle walkways are paved with geometric tiles set in elaborate patterns. The geometrical clerestory windows are set in pointed segmental-arched openings. The nave's arched timber trusses rest on corbels carved with angels playing musical instruments. The aisles have plain timber roofs on foliate corbels.

A 15th-century doorway with segmental arch in the south aisle contains a 19th-century door giving access to the south porch. Pointed segmental arches on carved corbels connect the aisles and transepts.

Chancel

Within the chancel arch are corbels of heads from which sprout leaves and flowers, supporting triple shafts of black Devon marble with richly carved capitals. Above the chancel arch is a painted band with quatrefoils flanking a vesica. Separating nave from chancel is a dwarf stone screen ornamented with quatrefoil panels of coloured marbles and studded with marble bosses, supporting panels of open ironwork.

The chancel's wagon roof, with foliate bosses, is richly painted in Medieval style. The double sedilia to the south has pointed trefoil heads on black marble shafts; above, the window is enclosed by a trefoil-headed niche with foliate carving around the head, supported on grey marble shafts. A trefoil-headed niche to the north has a shelf supported by a corbel carved with hops and wheat.

The altar rail rests on balusters of scrolled brass with floral motifs studded with coloured glass. The reredos matches the chancel screen, being of Caen stone with coloured marble quatrefoils and bosses. Its upper stage forms an arcade with coloured marble shafts supporting trefoiled arches beneath gables, framing emblematic carving in quatrefoils. The central niche, backed with alpha and omega symbols, encloses a cross with marble bosses.

The east windows contain glass depicting the life of Christ, designed by Allen and executed by O'Connor. Two brass and iron chandeliers of coronet form with central pendants hang in the chancel. A brass plaque on the south side commemorates Charles Woodcock, vicar at the time of the 1864 rebuilding and later Canon of Salisbury.

North Chapel

An arcade dividing chancel and north chapel has clustered shafts of alternating marble and limestone with carved capitals and carved arches. The north chapel, originally designated as the chapel of St Andrew's College, Chardstock, was furnished in the 1890s in memory of a former church chorister and those educated at St Andrew's College. It has a scissorbeam roof with decorative painting and an open timber screen in Devon style.

Other Spaces

The organ chapel and vestry lie south of the chancel. The organ has 19th-century stencilling to the pipes; the vestry interior was not inspected. A vestry area in the north transept contains a small kitchen. The north transept, originally designated the Tytherleigh Aisle, contains a war memorial plaque commemorating the fallen of both world wars.

Furnishings

The nave and aisles retain their pews, with front pews having panels with trefoil decoration and shaped, chamfered ends. There is a matching vestry screen and bookcase. The front choir stalls have scrolled foliate carving to the ends and decorative back panels; the second row is plainer.

The polygonal pulpit, reached by steps south of the chancel arch, is of brass and iron openwork, partly painted, with delicate foliate scrolls and the inscription "we preach not ourselves but Christ the lord". This rests on a base of red and black Devon marbles. A second, Jacobean pulpit stands on the north side of the chancel arch. The lectern has a twisted brass baluster supporting a wooden bookrest pierced with a quatrefoil.

The Victorian font, in neo-Norman style, stands west of the door and has a square basin with carved roundels resting on a massive stem with chevron carving and four marble columns. The original Norman font, returned to the church in 2010 after its 1864 displacement, stands east of the door. It is of similar form but smaller scale, with a squared granite basin decorated with an arcade, standing on a square stem with outer sandstone columns.

Subsidiary Features

The gabled lychgate north of the north porch has a king-post structure with tiled roof resting on a high stone plinth. The timber gates have open pointed arches and quatrefoil piercing. A flagstone path leads from the lychgate to the north porch.