Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Sedbergh

Parish church, mostly dating from around 1500 but incorporating fabric from various earlier periods. The building underwent major restoration in 1886-7. It is constructed of mixed random rubble with sandstone quoins and dressings, and has a green slate roof.

The church comprises a five-bay nave, chancel, continuous north and south aisles (which include a south chapel and north vestry), and a west tower.

The square three-stage tower has west buttresses rising to half height with four offsets. The belfry stage is slightly corbelled out and has an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The west face displays a restored two-centred arched three-light window with cusped lights, a transom and hoodmould. Higher up on the second stage is the hoodmould of a former window, with a very small opening below it. The belfry stage has a square-headed window of three round-headed lights with hollow spandrels, stone louvres and a hoodmould.

The five-bay nave has clerestory windows of three round-headed lights with hollow spandrels and cavetto hoodmoulds. The long, low aisles feature buttresses, cavetto dripbands, embattled parapets and square-headed four-light windows with round-headed lights, hollow spandrels and cavetto hoodmoulds with figured stops. The south aisle contains a gabled porch at the second bay, with a wide two-centred moulded arch, hoodmould, small round-headed niche above, and coped parapet with ball finial. Over a square-headed priest door to the chapel is a large stone sundial, with a window of three trefoil lights to its east. The north aisle has a corresponding but smaller gabled porch with a round-headed archway moulded in two orders, cavetto hoodmould, small round-headed niche with a statue, and gable coping with a large carved stone finial. A simple round-headed inner doorway, said to be Norman, connects to this porch. At the north-east corner of the north aisle is an unusual diagonal buttress with an elaborate ogival niche. The east end features a wide segmental-headed chancel window of three round-headed lancet lights, flanked by a four-light window to the chapel and a three-light window to the vestry.

Internally, the north and south aisle arcades differ significantly. The south arcade has six bays with mostly cylindrical piers much shorter than those to the north, and round arches with small chamfer. Its west respond is tripartite with a keeled middle member. The fifth arch is wider with double-chamfer, and the sixth arch (to the chapel) is two-centred. The north arcade comprises eight bays, also with mostly cylindrical piers (restored), and round arches with small chamfer, though a rectangular pier stands opposite the north door. The fifth and sixth arches are wider and lower than the others, and asymmetrical; the arch on the north side of the chancel is two-centred. Above the north arcade are three blocked windows from a formerly lower clerestory. The tower arch is two-centred and flanked at the top by remains of former round-headed windows. The west window of the north aisle breaks into the right-hand side of a former deeply-splayed round-headed window. Various wall monuments stand between the arches of the nave arcade. The pulpit dates from the 19th century and retains a restored 18th-century sounding-board.