Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church with significant fabric dating from the 12th century, alterations in the 15th century, and a major restoration in 1878. The nave and tower are constructed of random rubble with large, squared quoins, while the chancel is of mixed squarish and flat stone with ashlar buttresses. The nave has a tiled roof, the spire is shingled, and the chancel has a slate roof.

The tower is in three stages, distinguished by slight offsets in the wall. It has four lancet windows, the lower three being round-headed and the top being pointed. Above the shingled gables on each face are louvred, two-light square-headed openings, topped by a helm roof and an iron cross. A sundial is positioned on the apex of the tower, consisting of a cube set diagonally and a gnomon on three faces, topped with a ball finial. The south porch is gabled and offset to the left. It has a pointed arch with a floriate hoodmould and wrought-iron gates. The porch shelters the south door, which features a semi-circular moulded arch on 19th-century columns and a trefoil-head to the doorway with a plain tympanum. A low, plain plinth exists at the rear. To the left of the porch is a three-light Perpendicular window, and to the right, a two-light window with reticulated tracery. The jamb and partial arch of a 12th-century window are visible to the left of the reticulated window, displaying moulded stones and a capital with volute. Gable parapets top the nave, with an apex cross at the east end.

Inside the church, the walls are plain plaster. A wide, semi-circular arch leads to the tower, springing from an abacus. The chancel arch is flanked by two columns with cushion capitals and moulded arches. The nave features a three-bay roof with crown-post trusses on wall posts and braces, with half-trusses in between. The chancel’s eastern end has late 19th-century Jacobean-style panelling. An octagonal stone font dating from 1884 is present, decorated with leaves to the bowl, supported on grotesques, with cinquefoil-headed panelling to the stem and leaves and flowers on the base. Two 18th-century wall monuments and two Norman revival wall monuments from 1842 and 1843 are also located in the chancel. A plain piscina is situated near the pulpit in the nave. The church was heavily restored by Waller and Son in 1878 following a fire. A carved stone, believed to be from the 3rd century AD, is situated above a 19th-century rebuild of a 12th-century north door; it depicts a standing figure with raised arms and circular motifs to either side. The church forms a group with Churcham Court.