Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Great Billing

This is a parish church of 12th-century or earlier origin with substantial phases of development through the 13th and 14th centuries. It was partially rebuilt after 1759 following the fall of the spire, and underwent restoration in 1867 by E. F. Law.

The church is constructed of coursed stone rubble, with the north chapel built in ashlar. The 16th-century panels in the clerestory and tower parapets are said to have come from the demolished Billing Hall (pulled down in 1776). The roofs are leaded.

The building comprises a nave with four-bay north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower. There is a chancel with a north chapel.

The exterior shows the complex building history. The chancel's south windows are 19th-century work with quatrefoil tracery, and the south door has a pointed head. Above the chancel's east window is a date stone reading LM/STP 1687, which has 19th-century Geometric-style tracery. Two 18th-century urns formerly stood on the east corners of the chancel and now remain in the churchyard. The north chancel chapel dates to the late 17th century and displays prominent quoining at its northeast and northwest corners. Its east wall features a very large framed blind window surmounted by a segmental broken pediment on brackets, with the parapet curving upward to accommodate the pediment. The chapel's north windows are 19th-century Gothic-style replacements.

The north aisle was rebuilt after the spire's fall in 1759 and retains Classical quoins at the northwest corner. Its windows have 19th-century Y-tracery. The south aisle dates from around 1400 but its windows are also 19th-century Y-tracery replacements, replacing 18th-century windows with pointed heads. The south porch is 18th-century with a round-headed outer opening. The south door, from around 1400, has a pointed head with crockets and shields on the hood mould stops.

The nave clerestory windows are 19th-century, though the openings are 18th-century. The nave parapet contains panels of Elizabethan balustrading with pierced quatrefoils, said to come from Billing Hall demolished in 1776. The west tower is of three stages without setbacks, with diagonal buttresses on the lower two stages. The west window is a lancet with a trefoil-headed slit above it. The upper part of the tower was rebuilt after the spire's fall in 1759 and its parapet features Elizabethan balustrade panels like those in the nave clerestory.

The interior is plastered and painted with exposed stone dressings, and the roofs are ceiled throughout. The late 13th or early 14th-century chancel arch has two orders, the outer continuous, the inner on polygonal half-shafts. The chancel's east window has shafted jambs. The north chancel chapel opens to the chancel through a two-bay arcade of 1867. Flanking this arcade are two 15th-century windows opening internally, and above the arcade are dwarf shafts of 1867 apparently intended to support a 19th-century vault or roof.

The north chancel chapel is dominated by the monument to Henry, 7th Earl of Thomond. Two burial vaults lie beneath the chapel, one for the Thomonds and one for the Elwes family, later lords of the manor. The chapel opens to the north aisle through an arch of 1867.

The nave contains 4-bay north and south arcades, with the western bays on both sides narrower than those to the east. Breaks in the masonry above the central pier on each side indicate where the early nave was extended westwards. On the north, the central pier has a round shaft and square capital with late 12th-century leaf forms. The eastern and western piers and responds of the north arcade have early 14th-century moulded capitals, and all the north arcade arches were rebuilt in the early 14th century. The south arcade piers are a consistent design of around 1275 with clustered shafts. The hood mould on the south has some nailhead decoration, perhaps a remnant of an earlier arcade. The north aisle was rebuilt after 1759, but the rere-arch of the north aisle's west window is medieval. The south aisle has a reredos of around 1400 at its east end. The tower arch is 14th-century with three orders, the outer dying into the walls and the inner on polygonal responds.

Among the principal fixtures is the reredos of around 1400 in the south aisle's east wall, featuring a tall ogee-headed central recess flanked by two smaller ogee recesses. It is said to have once had a painted inscription in the central recess. An octagonal 15th-century font with panelled sides and stem and a moulded top survives. There is a 19th-century timber chancel screen in Perpendicular style and a 19th-century timber traceried pulpit on a carved stone wineglass stem.

The church contains significant monuments. A large monument of 1700 in the north chapel commemorates Henry, 7th Earl of Thomond (died 1691) and his countess, executed by Bushnell and described by Pevsner as 'shockingly inept', though it remains of considerable interest as a late and unusual work by an important mason-sculptor. Caroline Elwes (died 1812) is commemorated by a monument by Flaxman, and Robert Elwes (died 1852) by one by Weekes. Several 19th-century brass tablets to members of the Elwes family are present, and the chancel contains a brass for Justinian Bracegirdle (died 1625) with a rhyming inscription.

Some 19th-century glass survives, including the west window by Powell of 1870.

The church stands near the site of the demolished Billing Hall. A priest is recorded at Billing in 1086, though it is unclear whether this refers to Great Billing church or to All Saints, Little Billing church, which has an 11th-century font. Great Billing church was certainly in existence by the mid-12th century, when it was granted to Leicester Abbey. The nave, occupying the eastern bays of the present nave, was extended westwards in the later 12th century when the north aisle was added or extended. The tower is probably contemporary in origin. The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, and the south aisle was added or rebuilt in the late 13th century. In the early 14th century the north aisle was remodelled, as were the chancel and tower arches. The south aisle was rebuilt around 1400. The north chapel was added in the late 17th century with some contemporary work on the chancel. The spire fell in 1759, after which the north aisle, nave clerestory and tower top were rebuilt. The south aisle windows were also renewed at this time, and the south porch was added or rebuilt. The church underwent refenestration in the 19th century, and the chancel and north chapel were restored by E. F. Law in 1867.