Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church, largely dating to the 15th and early 16th centuries, with extensive restoration work carried out in 1861 and again in 1907. The 1861 restoration was overseen by Benjamin Ferrey, who added a north aisle, and likely a vestry and organ bay, while the 1907 work involved further restoration. The church is constructed of squared and coursed blue lias, with Ham stone quoins, and has slate roofs with coped verges. It comprises a chancel, a north-east vestry and organ bay, a four-bay nave and north aisle, a south porch, and a west tower.

The crenellated, three-stage west tower is set back with buttresses topped with crocketed pinnacles and angle pinnacles on the battlements. Decorative lion masks adorn the corners of the string course, and a coat of arms sits above. It features two-light bell openings with pierced tracery, a tiny, eroded two-light window above the string course, a three-light west window, and an ogee-headed moulded doorway with a 19th-century door. A stair turret is present on the north-east side. The nave features set-back buttresses and a two-light window to the left of the gabled, single-story porch, which has a semi-circular hollow-chamfered doorway and a moulded pointed arch inner doorway with a 19th-century door. A three-light window is located to the right, alongside buttresses and a 19th-century priest's door. The vestry has a two-light east window, an octagonal chimney stack, a doorway on its north front, and a two-light window to the right of the organ bay. The north aisle features a rose window to its east end, a set back buttress, and three- and two-light windows.

Internally, the walls are rendered, with squared and carved blue lias exposed in the tower. A Perpendicular chancel arch has panelled jambs, and a similar tower arch has corbelled pilasters rising above on the tower wall. A four-bay Perpendicular arcade separates the nave and north aisle. The chancel has moulded ribs to the ceiling, creating a wagon roof with bosses, while the sanctuary has a compartment ceiling. A similar roof is present in the nave, with a compartment ceiling over the rood area and a wall plate. The north aisle has a ceiled wagon roof. Other interior features include an aumbry in the chancel, a moulded archway from the north aisle to the organ bay, a 1913 pulpit and parclose screen (the former incorporating elements of an old rood screen), an altar table with turned baluster legs and a guilloche frieze, and 19th-century pine pews. A coloured slate memorial tablet commemorates Christian Sealy, who died in 1727, and an oil painting of the Virgin and Child with St John hangs in the north aisle. The building’s history includes an original status as a chapel, later declared a vicarage in 1865-6.