Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

A large church by Gower standards, comprising a west tower, nave, chancel, north transept and south porch. The tower, nave and north wall of the chancel are built in axe-dressed local grey limestone. The remaining walls of the chancel are rebuilt in red sandstone brought to courses, with two buttresses on the east side. The transept and porch are constructed in random limestone rubble, except for the two large south buttresses which are coursed. Slate roofs throughout with tile ridges; coped gables are present throughout except above the nave at the chancel. Eaves overhang mostly without gutters; corbels appear on the south side of the chancel. A disused 19th-century vestry chimney stands at the junction of the north transept. Considerable traces of old render remain on the south side of the nave and on the porch. On the exterior of the north transept the arch of a lost east window is visible, together with three low arches; these perhaps indicate the former use of the transept as a chapel with a burial vault beneath.

The tower rises four storeys, marked only by the slit lights in the north and south faces, with slight batter at the foot. A change of masonry probably indicates a rebuild of the top third of the tower. Its parapet projects on all sides on a corbel table; the crenellations are restored. The east window contains two lights in sandstone, with a cinquefoil roundel above, label mould and small floral stops, contemporary with the surrounding wall as shown by its relieving arch in the same masonry. The two south windows of the chancel are similarly detailed but lack a relieving arch; to the left is a trefoil-headed lancet and to the right a pair of lancets. The transept north window comprises two lights in similar stone, with scalloped Y tracery and a label without stops.

The nave has four large square-headed windows in oolitic limestone in the side walls, one at each corner. Each is of two lights, with foiled heads and label moulds bearing humorous life-sized heads as stops. The east walls of the transept and porch were awkwardly cut back to admit two of these windows, and one label stop was omitted for want of space. The porch south door has a low Gothic arch struck from centres below the springing line; corner mouldings with deep cuts each side and a keel at the corner. The rolls each side stand on a small circular base.

Interior

The church is entered by the south porch, which contains a slate bench at each side and a water stoup to the right of the nave door. The dominant interior feature is the Gothic doorway to the nave, with an oak frame of two massive jambs curved inwards at the tops and notched and tenoned into a head beam. This frame is chamfered on the outside face and includes a sill beam, also tenoned into the jambs. A 19th-century boarded door closes against this frame, set within a tall pointed masonry arch, also chamfered. The nave is unequally divided by a low wall and step, defining its east part as a choir. The ceiling is barrel-shaped, panelled with thin ribs and with an enriched cornice at the wall heads. The floor is of red and black quarries.

A simple Norman chancel archway with a roll moulding to the arch on the nave side only and a simple abacus moulding at the springing line separates the nave from the chancel. The jambs below are square-cornered. The arch is slightly off-centre in relation to the opening. The wall plaster has been kept back to show the old stonework. In the wall above the arch is a stone head of unknown origin, fixed here during the 19th-century restoration, and to the left of that the outline of the rood access opening has been indicated in the plaster. To the north of the nave is a tall arch similar to that leading to the porch, with chamfered exposed stonework on the arris toward the nave only. To the left of this is a niche, in a position where the early access to the transept is thought to have been. The chancel is plain with a single step at the altar rails. The chancel face of the arch carries a moulding in old plaster. The chancel ceiling is barrel-shaped with transverse ribs. The floor is patterned in red and black quarries and encaustic tiles. The north transept now serves as a baptistery and vestry, with a 19th-century Gothic timber screen and door to the latter. The font is octagonal with a slight arris moulding and stands on a square base.

There is no pictorial glass. Coloured margins surround quarry glazing in the windows of the chancel; larger quarry glazing in coloured obscured glass with coloured margins appears in the four windows of the nave.

To the left of the east window is a Baroque monument with a cherub spreading an inscribed veil, commemorating John Hancorne, who died in infancy in 1741. In the choir, to the left of the chancel arch, stands a white marble tablet on a grey ground, carved by Baily, London in 1839, to Captain Sir Christopher Cole; another to Lady Mary Lucy Cole (died 1855), carved by Tyley of Bristol. To the right of the arch is a monument erected by Mrs Sarah Bennet in 1726 to William Bennet of Sanctuary (died 1698) and others, featuring a broken rounded pediment, pilasters with floral design on the faces, a bracketed shelf and a large foliage feature beneath, with a shield of arms on a ragged cartouche above. To the west of the door is a tablet with a moulded surround to David Bennet of Pitt (died 1666). Other monuments are modern.