Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A church of 13th and 14th-century date, restored between 1883 and 1889 by George Sutherland (clerk of the works to the Castle Ashby estate), with further 20th-century restoration. The work was carried out by the Castle Ashby estate at the expense of the 4th Marquis of Northampton. Construction is in coursed limestone rubble with limestone and ironstone dressings, with lead and plain-tile roofs.

The building comprises a chancel, aisled nave, south porch and west tower. The chancel is of three bays and contains a 4-light east window with reticulated tracery. To the south are 2-light windows with straight heads and ogee-arched lights, all with hood moulds and label stops (renewed in the 20th century). The south-west window has its lower portion blocked below the transom. A chamfered priest's doorway opens to the south with an old plank door.

The nave has a clerestory of five 2-light windows with straight heads, ogee-arched lights and hood moulds. The north aisle contains 2-light windows to the north and similar 3-light windows at the east and west ends, all with straight heads and ogee-arched lights. The south aisle has matching 2-light and 3-light windows. A restored double hollow-chamfered door with hood mould opens to the north. The south doorway is single-stepped and hollow-chamfered, with a medieval ridged and studded plank door (probably 14th-century) retaining original hinges, a brattished cross-piece at the level of the arch springing, cusped arch mouldings and scalloped top. The 19th-century porch has a double-chamfered doorway and paired cusped chamfered 1-light windows to its east and west sides.

The west tower is of three stages. A small plank door to the north-east is set in a pegged wood surround with an overlight divided by a plain wood mullion, one half glazed with diamond-leaded panes, and a wood lintel. A pilaster buttress is set to the middle of the west side, with 1-light windows to the middle stage south and west. The bell-chamber contains twin nook-shafted openings with central shafts and round-headed lights framed by rounded-headed arches. Worn dog-tooth ornament appears on the heads of the lights to the south and east bell-chamber openings, with a single 1-light window with round head to the east of the south opening. The original early 13th-century corbel table and 15th-century battlemented parapet remain, and diagonal off-set buttresses are positioned at the west angles.

The interior of the chancel contains much-restored ogee-arched sedilia and piscina. The nave features 4-bay arcades with octagonal piers, moulded bases and capitals, corbels at either end of the arcades and double-chamfered arches. The south aisle contains a pointed trefoil-headed piscina and image brackets flanking the east window; the bracket to the left has a carved head, that to the right has foliage. A 19th-century Communion Table is supported by Elizabethan or Jacobean Ionic terms, probably from the original communion rail.

A large brass chandelier hangs in the nave, presented in 1808 by Reverend George Rooke. It is signed by Cocks and Son, Birmingham, with 10 branches arranged in 2 tiers, an ormolu rococo flame finial and a rise and fall mechanism. A smaller 6-branch chandelier in the south aisle has a similar mechanism and is probably part of the same gift. An oil-on-board royal arms of George III is present, together with two funeral hatchments in oils on board: one bearing Compton arms, the other bearing the arms of Reverend George Rooke (died 1856). Early 20th-century stained-glass windows light the chancel and south aisle.

Monuments include a white marble wall monument to John Wilson (died 1695) with slate inscription panel, flanked by volutes and topped with a swan's-neck pediment and cartouche of arms. A monument to Reverend Humfrey Betty (died 1737) and his wife Dorothy (died 1717) has a veined grey marble apron and lamp with flame finial. A veined grey marble monument to William Underwood (died 1760), postmaster of Oxford, Witney and Burford, records his acquisition of "an handsom Furtune" by "care and industry", which he divided among his poor relations in his will, requesting burial in the chancel near the rails. A veined white marble wall monument to Reverend Edward Lye (died 1767) was signed by William Co of Northampton, with apron, pediment, upright oval inscription panel and bracket bearing a book, quill and inkwell. A white marble on grey marble ground monument to George Rooke (died 1807) was erected by his father, the rector of the parish, and features an apron with martial trophy and arms, and an urn finial. Other early to mid 19th-century wall monuments are also present.