"The church of ST. ANDREW, so called from the late 11th century, is built of field stones, ironstone conglomerate, re-used brick which is probably Roman, and coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. It has a chancel with north aisle and vestry and south chapel, an aisled and clerestoried nave with south porch, and an aisled west tower. The long and short quoins of the early, perhaps late 11th-century, chancel were formerly exposed in the chancel south wall and the similar quoins of the south-east and northeast corners of the nave are still visible. The present nave, which is poorly set out and tapers markedly from west to east, may in part follow the lines of its predecessor of the 11th century or earlier.
The church was repeatedly enlarged in the 13th century. Soon after 1200 the nave was rebuilt, at a length (22.5 m.) exceptional in Cambridgeshire, with narrow lean-to aisles continued westwards to flank the contemporary tower. The chancel and tower arches are of that date. The south chapel was added in the earlier 13th century, probably by the Zouches, whose arms were recorded there in the 17th century. It projected east of the chancel, from which it is separated by a two-bayed arcade; its east window retains the original shafted jambs. In the south wall a former recess, of which one flanking shaft and jamb survive, may have housed the tomb of the builder of the chapel. About 1300 the south aisle was widened to align with the chapel; it retains tall two-light windows with Y-tracery, and a similar three-light window was inserted into the chapel. The south porch, beneath which there was a Zouche vault, is contemporary with the aisle. In the earlier 14th century the chancel was extended to align with the chapel and a piscina and triple sedilia were built into the new work. The second window in the south chapel and the north doorway are of about the same date and it may have been then that central transoms decorated with cusping were put into the windows of the south aisle.
In the 15th century the nave was rebuilt with six-bayed arcades and a clerestory, the north chancel aisle and vestry were added, and the north aisle was refenestrated and paved at the expense of William Everard. New windows were also put into the chancel, the tower, the west end of the south aisle, and the east wall of the south chapel, where sedilia were built into the south wall, destroying the earlier founder's tomb. Alterations at the east end of the south aisle may have been required by the insertion of a stair to a rood loft. The roofs are of the 15th or 16th century and of low pitch. The nave and south aisle are separately ridged as they probably were in the 14th century, although then more steeply pitched.
The church was repaired in the late 16th and early 17th century. Drop finials were added to the chancel roof about then and an aisle tiebeam is dated 1629. By 1742 the south aisle was separated from the south chapel by a breast wall. The tower was rebuttressed in 1747.
The church was restored in 1866-7 apparently to the designs of G. E. Street. The roofs and tower were repaired, the vestry and a fallen part of the north aisle were rebuilt, and the south porch was restored; it was perhaps then that the entrance to the vault below was blocked. In the east window of the south chapel Perpendicular tracery was replaced by five lancets under one head. The choir vestry north of the tower was dedicated in 1911. The tower was again restored in 1913.
The 19th-century choir stalls in the chancel include medieval fragments, and medieval pew ends survive in the south aisle; until the restoration of 1866-7 they stood in the nave. In 1607 Thomas East obtained a faculty to erect a pew apparently at the east end of the south aisle. The church was repewed in 1866-7. The octagonal font is late medieval, with traceried panels and blank shields. A new clock and organ were given in 1894.
A brass to William Fairfax (d. 1501) and his wife Agnes lay in the nave in the 17th century. On the south wall of the south chapel is an elaborate monument, designed by Nicholas Stone, to Anne (d. 1631), first wife of Sir John Cutts (d. 1646). It is in the form of a halfopen marble cupboard surmounted by an open segmental pediment.
There were four bells and a sanctus bell in 1553. The great bell was recast in the time of Simon Ockley, vicar 1705-20, who added an Arabic inscription. In 1753 there were six bells, five having been cast by Joseph Eayre of St. Neots (Hunts.) in that year. The plate in 1553 consisted of a parcel gilt chalice and paten, but in the 1960s there was no plate earlier than 1800. The registers include baptisms from 1576 and marraiges and burials from 1613, with gaps 1679-80 and 1689-1701.
The churchyard was extended in 1306 and 1850. The latter extension or another was consecrated in 1859. Part of the churchyard was taken for the present Station Road at inclosure between 1838 and 1840."
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