Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church located in Withypool Village. It dates from the late medieval period, with the tower being rebuilt in the early 17th century. The church underwent restoration and refitting in 1887 and was extensively restored again with the tower rebuilt in 1902, the latter work carried out by W H Farings. The structure is built from random rubble local stone and features slate roofs, coped verges, and decorative ridge tiles.

The church consists of a chancel, a three-bay nave, a north aisle, and a west tower. The west tower is crenellated and has two stages, with diagonal buttresses on the first stage. A datestone from 1902 is located on the southeast face of the southwest buttress, and an early medieval carved stone with part of a cross is set into the northwest buttress. There is a northeast stair turret leading to the first stage, a string course, and a single semi-circular headed louvred bell opening. The tower also features a two-light west window and a chamfered semi-circular headed west doorway, which shows weathering from the 17th-century rebuilding of the tower.

On the south front, there is a buttress between the tower and nave, and a single-storey gabled porch with semi-circular headed openings and a 19th-century inner door. The nave has a three-light mullioned window, the chancel has a two-light window, and there are three-light windows at the east end of the north aisle and on the north front.

Inside, the church has rendered walls and 19th-century roofs, with archbraced roofs in the aisle and a kingpost in the nave. The tower arch is moulded in a semi-circular shape and features unusual, possibly 17th-century, pilasters carrying imposts on the jambs, closed by panelling that may date from the 18th century. The three-bay Perpendicular arcade has pointed, hollow moulded arches with thin imposts. At the north end of the aisle, there is 18th-century panelling forming a vestry. The church also contains a Norman font with a fluted bowl and chevron moulded rim, and fittings from 1887. An aumbry was added to the chancel wall around 1970, and there is a slate tablet commemorating Dorothy Adams, who died in 1804. The living is a chapelry annexed to the rectory of Hawkridge.