Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Kirby Grindalythe

This church was substantially rebuilt in 1878 by the architect George Edmund Street for Sir Tatton Sykes, though it incorporates significant medieval fabric. The west tower dates to the 12th century, with a 14th-century belfry, while the spire was rebuilt in the 18th century. The building is constructed of dressed sandstone and sandstone ashlar, with fragments of carved medieval masonry reused in the chancel. It has a roll-moulded and chamfered plinth, and a tiled roof with pierced cresting.

The church comprises a west tower of four stages, a four-bay nave with north aisle and clerestory, south porch, chancel, north chapel and vestry. The west tower features a north-east vice with conical roof. The west doorway has a stepped round arch set on slim columns with defaced carved capitals, imposts and steep bases. The second and third stages contain slit openings. Below the belfry, a string course sits beneath paired openings with quatrefoil tracery set in pointed arches with hoodmoulds. A plain parapet with restored pinnacles rises over a corbel table with waterspouts, surmounted by a set-back octagonal spire carrying a cock weather-vane.

The gabled south porch has a pointed arch of two orders on columns with crocket capitals beneath a chevron-moulded hood. Both return walls carry circular quatrefoil windows. Inside, the porch is tunnel-vaulted. A pointed south doorway in a keel-moulded arch of two orders on columns with crocket capitals stands opposite; the inner arch is nailhead-moulded with a dogtooth hoodmould.

The east end has three two-light windows with Decorated tracery, separated by offset buttresses. The north side features paired lancets in the aisle and single lancets in the clerestory. The pilaster-buttressed chancel has a segment-arched priest's door on its south side, a rectangular transomed low-side window, and three lancets further east. The gabled vestry to the north contains a pointed door, lancets and a gable-buttressed stack. A circular cinquefoil window pierces the west gable, and three lancets light the east end. The east elevation has pilaster angle buttresses with a central gabled dwarf buttress flanked by lancets, and an elongated oval light in the gable end. A moulded sill band encircles the entire church, and coped gables with gable crosses crown the porch, nave, chancel and vestry.

The interior shows a stepped round tower arch with imposts, chamfered on its lower side. The north arcade comprises pointed arches on a clustered column centre pier and responds, with two cylindrical piers, all carrying waterleaf capitals. The pointed chancel arch of two orders on responds has elaborate leaf capitals; the inner arch is keel-moulded and the outer roll-moulded, with a nailhead-moulded hood. A figure carved in high relief stands over the chancel arch.

The chancel contains sedilia between paired columns, the outer ones Norman in date; an aumbry; and a reused carved and fluted piscina. An alabaster and marble altarpiece by James Redfern depicts The Crucifixion flanked by The Annunciation and lower panels showing the Martyrdoms of Saints Andrew and Peter. A square font with sides carved with interlaced arcades is said to be a copy of the original, which is locked in the tower. The pulpit is of polished grey granite inlaid with coloured stone. A carved timber rood screen with traceried arch and flanking pointed lights stands nearby.

Original metalwork includes wrought-iron screens to the north chapel, lamp-holders in the nave and chancel, wrought-iron hinges on all doors, and a brass eagle lectern. The nave's west wall displays a mosaic of the Ascension by an unknown Italian artist. The chapel contains a 12th-century arcaded tomb chest, said to be that of Walter Espec, founder of the church.

The stained glass is mostly by Clayton and Bell, with the south nave windows by Burlison and Grylls.