Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Parish church built between 1873 and 1879 by G.E. Street for Lord Sudeley. The building is constructed in ashlar with a stone slate roof.

The church follows Street's early Decorated style, employing Geometric tracery throughout. It comprises a nave, south porch, south tower, chancel, north and south chapels, and vestry. All walls feature a heavy moulded plinth with a string course above at sill level extending to the chapels and chancel.

The south front displays square-set buttresses on the left, followed by a two-light window with hoodmould and a further buttress. A projecting single-storey porch has clasping corner buttresses and an arched opening, with a parapet gable topped by cross-gablets at foot and apex, and a cross on the apex. Two-light windows occupy the returns. To the right are two three-light windows with hoodmoulds and a buttress between them, corbelled eaves, and a parapet gable at the west end. The square-set corner buttresses of the tower project to the right, with sloping and gabled offsets.

The south side features a double boarded door set up one stone step, with nook shafts, dogtooth moulding to the arch, hoodmould, and string course. A tall two-light window follows, with hoodmould and string course, succeeded by lancets behind three linked arches with hoodmoulds, a sloping offset, and a two-light window with wooden louvres. Corbelled eaves rise to a broach spire with crocketed finials to the broaches and three levels of lucarnes to the cardinal faces, topped by an iron weathervane. The left return has a semi-octagonal projection at the rear with a boarded door in a slight adjoining projection. To the right of the tower, the south chapel displays a three-light window with hoodmould, a lancet, square-set corner buttresses, corbelled eaves, and a parapet gable with a cross on its apex.

The chancel is set back on the right with a three-light window, head stops to the hoodmould, square-set buttresses to the corner with gabled offsets, and eaves and gable matching the chapel. The east end is topped by the tower. The chapel displays two two-light windows with hoodmoulds and a string course across the gable, with a three-light window in a moulded surround. The chancel's corner buttresses match the south side, with a five-light window featuring two king mullions and a hoodmould. A string course and matching window above follow as on the chapel. The vestry sits slightly set back on the right with a three-light window with hoodmould and a cross on the apex of its parapet gable.

The north side features a boarded door with an arched head, accessed via three stone steps with string steps forming a hoodmould above, plain projecting eaves. The chapel projects forward to the right with matching eaves. The north face displays a double gable with square-set corner and centre gabled buttresses. Two three-light windows with hoodmoulds are separated by blind quatrefoils above each side, with a large scaly gargoyle in the centre. A string course runs across both gables, each with a cinquefoil window above and a cross on the apex of the parapet gables. Set back on the right to the rear is a circular turret in the angle with a conical roof and lucarne. Three three-light windows alternate with buttresses to the right, with a boarded door up one stone step to the right, topped by a triangular window with hoodmould. Square-set corner buttresses complete this elevation, with eaves and gable matching the south side.

The porch interior contains a boarded door to the rear flanked by three marble nook shafts on each side, with dogtooth moulding and cusping to the arch above and a hoodmould. Arch-braced collar trusses support the ceiling. The church interior features ashlar walls with a concrete floor except to the chancel, which is paved in marble. Purbeck marble nook shafts enhance the windows.

The nave walls are divided into bays with Purbeck marble shafts carrying arches in the side walls, with a moulded string course above. A screen to the west comprises a seven-bay blind arcade with clustered columns and trefoil arches with hoodmoulds and trefoils to the spandrels, above which rise three tall arches cutting off the western bay with a barrel vault. Moulded arches with moulded capitals and bases rest on clustered columns below, serving the north chapel, tower, and chancel. Hammer-beam trusses support the nave roof, with arched braces to the purlins and cusped upper braces.

The chancel features arches to the chapels as in the nave, Purbeck marble vaulting shafts, and quadripartite vaulting in three bays, the centre one being narrow. Arcaded seating surrounds the east end, with five bays to each side and seven to the end, featuring marble shafts, trefoil heads, hoodmoulds, and leaf diapering to the back of all but the corner seats and over arches on the east wall. An aumbry opens to the south. Purbeck marble gradines precede the communion table, set forward of the east wall. Boarded doors under trefoil heads provide access to the vestry and south chapel, with a six-bay open wooden screen behind the choir stalls.

The south chapel displays marble vaulting shafts, one square and one narrow bay with a central column. The north chapel comprises two bays with marble vaulting shafts and five-part vaults without a central column. A stone bench seat along the wall features five cinquefoiled recesses in the lower part with carved spandrels over on the east wall. A string course separates this from blind windows above. Three 18th-century marble wall monuments stand within.

A large altar tomb by Lough occupies the centre of the chapel, accessed via two stone steps. The plinth features blind arcading to the sides with corner angels and paired figures in the centre of the long sides. A brass strip marks the inscription for the effigies of C. Hanbury-Tracy, first Baron Sudeley (builder of Toddington Manor), and his wife. The effigies date to 1865, with the chest below to 1872.

A semi-octagonal stone pulpit with blind arcading to the sides and a clustered column below stands within the chapel. A carved circular font on a clustered column employs Derbyshire Spar, alongside a stone gadrooned wine-glass font by the north chapel. The east window was created by Hardman, whilst the north-west window in the nave was designed by Clayton and Bell in 1913. Various loose effigies, fragments from 17th-century work, and carved stops for hoodmoulds remain in the north chapel.