Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

This is a parish church with a complex building history spanning from the 12th century to the 19th century. The church comprises a chancel, north organ chamber and vestry, a four-bay nave with a south chapel and south aisle, a south porch, and a west tower.

The earliest work dates to the 12th century, with the chancel rebuilt and south chapel added or altered during the 13th century. The aisle and porch were added in the mid-15th century, and the nave and aisle were extended probably in the early 16th century. The tower was built circa 1533. A singing loft was added in 1764 and removed in the 19th century. The chancel was restored circa 1844 and an organ chamber was added in 1885.

The building is constructed principally of blue lias random rubble with buttresses of red sandstone. The chancel is built of red sandstone and blue lias random rubble. The tower is of squared and coursed red sandstone. Some herringbone masonry appears in the north wall. The roofs are of slate with coped verges.

The three-stage crenellated tower is a prominent feature, with set-back stepped buttresses rising to full height. These buttresses are decorated with string courses of quatrefoil ornament and topped with gargoyles. The bell openings are of three lights with Somerset tracery, with a blocked three-light opening below. There is an empty niche on the south face. A large four-light west window has a hoodmould, and the west doorway is a four-centred arch with a square hoodmould, partly renewed in Ham stone, with decorated spandrels and a ribbed door. A polygonal crenellated north-west stair turret rises beside the tower.

The south aisle contains a two-tier three-light west window. To the south is a diagonal buttress with a three-light mullioned window with unusual cusped heads on the left, and two such windows on the right of the south porch. The south porch has diagonal buttresses, with a barrel vault roof. The 19th-century moulded arched entrance leads to an inner doorway with a Tudor arched head and remains of painted decoration and inscription in the spandrels. The porch floor is a patterned pebble floor dated 1647/1, which may read 1847/1.

The south chapel projects slightly and has a diagonal buttress. Its east wall contains a two-light window and a lancet, with a moulded blocked 13th-century doorway on the left and a blocked lancet on the right. The east window is of three lights.

The north wall of the nave contains two three-light and one two-light mullioned windows with cusped heads. A gabled 19th-century heating chamber projects from this elevation.

The interior walls are rendered. The chancel arch and tower arch are four-centred and chamfered. The arcade is of standard Perpendicular form with disappointing capitals, and a hagioscope appears at the east end of the chancel.

The chancel is covered with a moulded ribbed barrel vault with a wall plate. The nave has a similar 16th-century barrel vault roof with bosses. The south chapel is roofed with three cambered beams, chamfered with step and run-out stops. The south aisle has a monopitch moulded rafter roof with bosses and an elaborate wall plate.

The floor level changes between the second and third bays of the nave. The nave and chancel have rich Minton tiled floors, with medieval tiles set around the font and in a plaque on the north wall.

In the north wall is an ogee-headed moulded recess containing a Beer stone effigy of a civilian dated circa 1425. The figure has an animal at its feet said to be a cat playing with a mouse.

The font is Perpendicular octagonal, with a handsome Victorian cover raised by pulley, probably incorporating medieval woodwork. An Art Nouveau brass lectern by Dear Ramsden and Alwyn Carr, dated 1911, bears the name of the donor (Conrad von Hochburg of Croydon Hall), though this has been erased. Communion rails date from 1791. Two medieval bench ends are set in panelling behind the altar. A brass chandelier is inscribed and dated 1770. A Poor Box is dated 1634, and a brass-bound box in the porch may be 17th century. A tower screen was created by Rachel Reckett and Jane Horrobin circa 1975.

The church contains a fine selection of Victorian stained glass by Morris and Company, Henry Holiday, and Kempe, together with a 1953 window by Comper.