Church Of St Andrew

Church of St. Andrew, Cold Aston

An Anglican parish church of 12th-century origin, substantially restored in 1875 by J.E.K. Cutts. The building is constructed of coursed, squared and dressed limestone, with a stone slate roof to the chancel and a leaded roof to the nave.

The church comprises a 12th-century nave and chancel, with a projecting porch on the south wall of the nave and a Perpendicular west tower. The chancel south wall features one trefoil-headed lancet and a plain lancet with hood to the right, with a chamfered string just below eaves height at the east end, bearing eroded projecting stops. On the nave north wall is a blocked small round-headed 12th-century window with a single stone lintel, next to a trefoil-headed lancet with stopped hood to the right. The easternmost bay of the nave is stepped in slightly on both sides and has a flat-chamfered plinth. The north wall displays a three-light rectangular window with Perpendicular tracery, probably from the 19th century, lighting this easternmost bay, followed by two trefoil-headed lancets. A blocked 12th-century door with semi-circular tympanum occupies the wall; the tympanum has a plain central field and decorated but eroded margin featuring billet decoration at the bottom and zig-zag decoration around the upper arc. A buttress with moulded plinth stands at the far right.

The nave south wall has a buttress with moulded plinth at the far left, followed by a trefoil-headed lancet to the left of the porch and a plain lancet to the right. A 19th-century three-light window with rectangular surround and tracery appears further right. Within the porch is a 20th-century plank door set within a 12th-century surround featuring jamb shafts and sculptured volute capitals. The porch arch consists of three orders with roll-moulding, double billet and diaper work. The tympanum within the surround is honey-combed and enriched with rosettes, while the lintel below is decorated with leaf and tendril motifs. The nave has a parapet with moulded capping on both sides and a string with eroded gargoyles below the parapet.

The three-stage Perpendicular tower has a moulded and flat-chamfered plinth with diagonal buttresses. Double plank doors on the west are set within a 'Tudor'-arched surround that is part hollow-moulded, part flat-chamfered, with carved spandrels and a stopped hood. Above is a three-light pointed window with Perpendicular tracery and a hollow-moulded hood with head stops. The second stage has a single rectangular light on the south side. Pointed belfry windows with stopped hoods and stone louvres appear on each side of the tower.

A rebuilt gabled porch on the south side of the nave features a 'Tudor'-arched entrance. The west wall of this south porch contains fragments of reused sculptured stonework including part of a 14th-century piscina, part of a series of trefoil-headed openings, a fragment of what may be a cross shaft decorated with an intertwined serpent motif, and part of a flat-chamfered band with repeated trefoil and heart-shaped decoration. A carved 12th-century voussoir with cable moulding is positioned over the porch entrance within the porch itself. The roof features a steeply pitched roof to the chancel with stepped coping and upright cross finials to both the chancel and porch.

The interior contains a five-bay nave with a pointed chancel arch dating from the 1875 restoration. A pointed Perpendicular arch leads from the nave to the tower, featuring engaged facetted jambs and moulded and facetted capitals. The tower space has a tierceron vault with a central bell opening and angel corbels. Nineteenth-century braced tie beams rest on fine Perpendicular face corbels. The chancel roof comprises seven-facetted 19th-century roof trusses. Plain coloured tiles forming geometric patterns pave the nave and chancel floor.

The lower half of the 12th-century north door is blocked, with the upper part now forming an image niche. An elaborate 14th-century stone reredos remains in the east wall of the chancel, formerly comprising three tall niches of which two survive above a moulded brattished string terminating in stops shaped like a king's and queen's head. Each niche has a canted canopy with crocketted cusped arches and former crocketted pinnacles above, now broken, with a miniature lierne vault within each niche. An Easter sepulchre in the same style with a heavy partly defaced canopy occupies the north wall of the chancel. Remains of an Early English pillar piscina appear in the south wall, and a small trefoil-headed credence shelf is set in the splay of the south-east window.

Furniture and fittings include a 19th-century octagonal stone font adjacent to the south door, 19th-century wooden pews and pulpit. Monuments include a small limestone monument on the west wall of the nave to the right of the tower arch, commemorating Samuel Elyott (died 1667) and Elizabeth his wife (died 1666), featuring a painted inscription with heraldic shield and cherub's head. A large limestone and marble Baroque monument by Reeve on the nave north wall honours Giles Carter (died 1664), with barley sugar columns flanking the inscription, a broken segmental pediment, and a painted heraldic shield topped by cherubs. A 19th-century benefaction board is displayed within the tower. Nineteenth-century stained glass appears in the chancel, with geometric stained glass in the west window and two windows in the nave wall.