Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church located in Ashburton, dating from the early or mid 15th century, with its tower constructed before 1449. The church underwent restoration by G E Street between 1882 and 1883. It is built from stone rubble with granite dressings, and features windows made of limestone, possibly Bath stone, under a slated roof. The layout includes a chancel, north and south chancel chapels, north and south transepts, a nave, four-bay north and south aisles, a north porch, and a west tower. There is a vestry to the east of the chancel, along with a lobby and choristers' room to the south.

The church showcases Perpendicular traceried windows, many of which were restored in the 19th century, and has setback buttresses and battlemented parapets. Each aisle features a five-sided stair turret at the west end. The doorway to the porch has a pointed, double-chamfered arch that springs from rounded half-columns. The west tower, considered the finest feature of the church, stands about 21 meters high and is divided into three stages, with setback buttresses that decrease in thickness at each level. It has a five-sided stair turret on the north face and a heavily moulded west door, which has been restored, along with three much-restored niches above that contain 19th-century figures. The battlemented parapets are adorned with pinnacles.

The vestry has a two-light 19th-century east window, surrounded by late 18th-century and early 19th-century memorials to the Winsor family. Inside, the chancel and nave feature arcades of octagonal granite columns that support double-chamfered pointed granite arches. The columns have hollowed faces on the shafts and moulded limestone capitals, possibly made from Beer stone. There are trefoil-headed piscinas in the chancel chapels and transepts. The church has wagon roofs over the chancel, nave, and transepts, while the aisle and chancel-chapel roofs are cambered with intersecting beams and carved bosses; the beams are moulded on the south side and carved on the north side. One of the bosses is said to feature the letter L, representing Bishop Lacey (1420-1456).

Notable interior elements include two fine 18th-century brass candelabras in the nave, an oak reredos created in 1928 by Herbert Read, a chancel screen from 1884, and a pulpit by Harry Hems of Exeter, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century. There is also a marble font from 1840 and a painting of the crucifixion by Legassick, a Devon artist, located in the north transept, which is part of a former reredos.