Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Cranford

Parish church, now chapel of ease. The building has a late 12th-century origin, with the tower dating from the late 13th century. It underwent alterations and additions in the 14th and 15th centuries, further work in 1674, and a substantial restoration with the addition of a north transept in 1847.

The church is built of coursed limestone rubble, partly rendered on the east side, with scattered ironstone ashlar dressings. The roofs are not visible but are probably of lead. The plan comprises a west tower, nave with north aisle, south porch, north transept, and chancel with north and south chapels.

The west tower is two storeys tall. The lower stage is of considerable height and features set-back buttresses, a low steeply-pointed west doorway with finely-moulded shaped surround, a lancet above, and a set of tiny stair-lights to the left. The south side has a lancet, and the east side shows a scar from the earlier steeply-pitched nave roof. The bell stage on each side has a two-light decorated window with quatrefoil head, three plain corbels (the central one on the south replaced by a clock), and a small lancet above. A castellated parapet sits on moulded eaves.

Castellated parapets also crown the chancel and porch, whilst the nave and chapels have plain parapets. The south side of the nave shows signs of heightening for a clerestory of four spherical triangles and features a bell-moulded string course, a two-light Perpendicular square-headed window with head-stopped hood-mould, and two three-light pointed windows with intersecting tracery flanking the porch. The porch has a continuously-moulded arched entrance and flanking buttresses.

The south side of the south chapel is refaced with squared stone and contains a doorway with depressed ogee head and a diamond-shaped stone above dated 1674, alongside a two-light traceried window (perhaps originally of four lights) with four-centred head. A row of 18th-century eaved headstones is reset alongside the wall beneath.

The east end of the chancel has a plinth, cill band, and three-light Perpendicular traceried window with hood-mould. The east end of the south chapel has a two-light window with cusped lights, hood-mould and cill band. The east end of the north chapel has a three-light Perpendicular window. The north side of the north chapel has a buttress and a three-light window with four-centred head and hood-mould.

The 19th-century transept features Perpendicular-style details. The north aisle has a three-light window (originally longer) with four-centred head, and a two-light square-headed Perpendicular window with moulded stones, resembling pieces of reset string course, placed vertically either side. A buttress stands at the west end. The north clerestory matches that of the south.

Internally, the nave arcades consist of three bays of late 12th-century round single-stepped arches carried on cylindrical columns with plain round capitals. A richly-moulded 13th-century pointed tower arch of four chamfered orders contrasts with the plainer 14th-century chancel arch of two chamfered orders on polygonal responds, the south one of ironstone. A roof stair rises from the north chapel, but the rood loft doorway is concealed by plaster. The heavily-restored nave roof, of which probably only the tie-beams predate the 19th century, features king posts, tracery and arch braces carried on corbels in the form of carved heads of kings, bishops and (to the west) knights. Other roofs are either restored or of 19th-century date.

Medieval piscinas survive in the north chapel and at the east end of the nave. The east window contains fragments of medieval and 17th-century English and continental glass. The north aisle contains brasses to John Fossebrok, died 1418, and his wife (who was nurse to Henry VI), and to John Fosbroke, died 1602, and his two wives. The south chapel contains, among other monuments, elaborate wall monuments to Bernard Walcot, died 1671, and Sir William Robinson, died 1678 or 1679, with a bust attributed to James Hardy, along with 18th-century slate floor slabs bearing inlaid curvilinear inscriptions. The 19th-century pulpit incorporates reset 16th-century Flemish panels carved with Biblical scenes. A plain octagonal font with a 17th-century flat cover stands on probably 19th-century traceried shafts.