Church Of St Andrew

History and Significance

St Andrew's was built in 1841-42 by John Hayward as a chapel of ease within the parish of St Thomas to serve the fringes of a working-class suburb of Exeter. The driving force behind the project was the Reverend John Medley, vicar of St Thomas and secretary of the newly-formed Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, established in 1841 as the first such body founded outside Oxford and Cambridge. This society promoted the type of church architecture and fittings championed by A.W.N. Pugin and the influential Cambridge Camden Society.

Although modest in appearance today, St Andrew's was revolutionary in its time and holds great architectural and historic importance in the early Victorian Gothic Revival. Its design faithfully followed medieval precedent, placing it at the forefront of a new movement that served as the architectural expression of the Oxford Movement.

The foundation stone was laid on 30 July 1841, and the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter on 26 September 1842. The Cambridge Camden Society's journal, The Ecclesiologist, devoted a lengthy review to the building, praising it extensively. The journal noted that it "is an admirable example, not only of what a church ought to be, but also of the very moderate sum which is necessary for a really Catholick Building; the total expense in this case not exceeding £1,400." It concluded: "on the whole, we do not hesitate to pronounce this the best specimen of a modern church we have yet seen."

John Hayward returned in the early 1870s when expansion became necessary. This work was financed by William Gibbs of Tyntesfield, Somerset, who had already funded the impressive Church of St Michael in Exeter. Gibbs also arranged for St Andrew's to become a separate parish. In 1873-74, Hayward added the north aisle and lengthened the chancel, although a projected steeple to the west of the aisle was never built. The splendid mosaic work in the reredos and the decoration of the roofs date from this period. The chancel walls were originally more extensively decorated, but much of this has regrettably been painted over.

Extensions in 1992-95 added a northeast meeting room, toilets, and kitchen.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of local red sandstone with dressings of Caen stone. The roofs are covered in slate.

Layout

The church comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, northeast vestry and meeting room, kitchen, and toilets.

Exterior

The principal parts of the original church consist of the nave and chancel. The nave is quite tall for its size, with a rather lower chancel. The architectural style is Geometrical, drawing on late 13th-century motifs—a period that by the early 1840s was increasingly regarded as producing the finest architecture of the Middle Ages.

The windows are of two lights (south elevation) and three lights (main west and east windows). All nave and aisle windows have a foiled circle in their heads. The chancel side windows feature slightly more elaborate tracery including tear-drop-type elements, though these are likely additions from 1873-74, as The Ecclesiologist's 1843 account criticized the lack of side windows in the chancel. The east window, undoubtedly from 1841-42 and reinstalled in the extended chancel, is the most ornate. It is copied from a window at Broughton in Oxfordshire and features a six-point star within a large circle at the top. The west window has three circles in its head.

On the north side, the aisle is slightly shorter than the nave. The outer doorway of the porch has three finely moulded orders with engaged shafts featuring moulded capitals and bases. A single-light bellcote sits over the west gable. Above the door into the nave is a cusped triangular panel bearing in relief the words "This is none other than the House of GOD and this is the Gate of Heaven." A further painted inscription surrounds the head of the doorway arch.

Interior

The walls are plastered and whitened. The original aisleless church was extended in 1873-74 with the addition of a three-bay north aisle. The arches feature delicate moulding and quatrefoil marble piers carrying foliage capitals. The chancel arch is moulded and lacks capitals.

The nave roof is canted (four-sided) with trusses of tie-beams and king-posts, divided into squares by moulded ribs. The aisle roof is similar. The chancel roof is also four-sided with square panels but no tie-beams. All roofs are decorated throughout. The chancel roof displays angel and human figures along with various wonders of creation. The nave and aisle roofs are patterned. The side walls of the chancel bear a painted frieze with foliage surrounding busts of angels—remnants of formerly more extensive decoration.

Principal Fixtures

The reredos is original to the 1840s church. It features a broad cusped panel behind the altar, flanked on either side by pairs of ogee arches filling the east wall. The entire ensemble is richly treated with tall pinnacles, crockets, and battlementing. The panels are filled with mosaic work by Salviati from 1873: the central image depicts the Ascension, with the flanking panels showing figures of the Apostles.

The altar is of Painswick stone, ornately and delicately carved. The principal motifs are three large quatrefoils depicting the Agnus Dei, a wreathed IHC emblem, and a hart drinking at a brook. The sanctuary is floored with patterned encaustic tiles.

The pulpit, entered from a passage beside the vestry, is three-sided with cusped blind arcading between a frieze at top and bottom. It is surmounted by a stone canopy with ornate decoration.

The font, also of Painswick stone, is richly carved with an octagonal bowl bearing an inscription around the top above panels with groups of triple cusped decoration.

The nave seats have two tiers of decoration with pairs of cusped arches on each tier. The chancel furnishings date from the late 1950s. The heads of the south nave windows contain stained glass from the 1840s.

Subsidiary Features

Southwest of the church stands a plain grey granite cross erected as a First World War memorial.