Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This church originated in the 11th century, with substantial additions and alterations during the 13th to 15th centuries. It was comprehensively restored in 1857. The building is constructed from regular coursed and squared coursed limestone with ashlar dressings. The roofs are covered in lead and Collyweston slate.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, south chapel, north aisle, south porch and west tower.

The chancel's north elevation displays a 2-window range of 2-light square-head windows, with the left window restored. The wall incorporates large 11th-century squared coursed blocks with later regular coursed rubble. The gabled roof is slate-covered with an ashlar gable parapet. The east window of the chancel is a 3-light window with 4-centred arch-head and hollow reveals. The wall is partially banded with regular coursed rubble and squared coursed limestone. The east window of the south chapel is similarly a 3-light window. The gables of the south chapel and chancel are flush, with a central gargoyle between them.

The south elevation of the south chapel presents a 2-window range of 2-light square-head windows with arch-head lights, separated by 2-stage buttresses. The roof is gabled with Collyweston slates and ashlar gable parapets. A 19th-century gabled porch projects from the west wall of the south chapel.

The north aisle displays a 2-window range of 3-light windows with 4-centred arch-heads, restored in the 19th century. To the right is a north doorway with chamfered stone surround and 4-centred arch-head. The aisle has 2-stage clasping buttresses at the corners and a central 2-stage buttress between the windows. The lean-to roof features a plain ashlar parapet with remains of gargoyles to the far left and right. The aisle also contains 3-light east and west windows with 4-centred arch-heads.

A single-window range in the chancel, to the left of the south elevation of the south chapel, contains a 2-light window with Y-tracery.

The south elevation of the nave comprises a 3-window range. Two 3-light square-head windows with cusping occupy the lower centre and right; three 2-light clerestory windows above have 4-centred arch-heads. The lower section of the wall, towards the centre and right, is squared coursed limestone, with regular coursed stonework elsewhere. The roof is shallow and gabled with plain ashlar parapets. Two rainwater heads are present, one inscribed with initials WH/CW and a partially legible 19th-century date.

A Perpendicular gabled porch projects from the left bay of the south elevation of the nave. It has an ashlar facade and regular coursed side walls. The outer doorway displays a double-chamfered 4-centred arch-head and semi-circular responds. The inner doorway has an ogee-head with crochets and flanking pinnacles, with a continuous hollow moulding enriched with paterae. Above are the arms of William Porter. The porch has 2-stage clasping buttresses at its corners, a castellated parapet with finial, and a gabled roof with Collyweston slates.

The Perpendicular west tower rises in three stages with subdivision and plinth to the lower stages. The west doorway is moulded stone with a 4-centred arch-head. Above it is a 3-light window with 4-centred arch-head and hollow reveals. The second stage has a single-light window to the west face. The upper bell chamber has 2-light openings on each face with 4-centred arch-heads, transoms and hollow reveals. Shallow corner pilasters terminate as octagonal crocketed pinnacles with castellated parapets between them.

Internally, the church contains a late 15th-century two-bay nave arcade of Perpendicular double-chamfered arches. The central pier has a continuous chamfer serving both the nave and aisle, with semi-circular responds facing into the arch. The chancel arch is hollowed and moulded with polygonal responds. The tower arch is double-chamfered with semi-circular responds. The arch from the chancel to the south chapel is double-chamfered with polygonal responds. Between the chancel and south chapel are 2-light square-head windows, now internal, with a blocked single-light window above having a semi-circular head.

The roof structures date to the 15th century. 19th-century furnishings include elaborate poppy heads. A 13th-century octagonal font is present.

The stained glass includes 19th and early 20th-century work to the chancel east and south windows, the lower south windows of the nave, the two west windows and the east window of the north aisle.

A clock mechanism in the tower is said to have come from Collyweston Palace; the date 1779 probably refers to a repair.

Memorials include an oval tablet to the left of the altar, dated 1615, with a Latin inscription. A 19th-century wall tablet adorns the south wall of the chancel. Lady Margaret Beaufort (Countess of Richmond, who lived at Collyweston Palace) may have been responsible for the late 15th-century south chapel.