Stained glass window in the east end of St Andrew's church, by Kempe, 1892.
"The church of ST. ANDREW, one of the finest in the county, consists of a chancel 40 ft. 6 in. by 18 ft. with north and south transeptal chapels respectively 24 ft. by 16 ft. and 30 ft. 6 in. by 19 ft., clearstoried nave of five bays 67 ft. 9 in. by 19 ft. 3 in., north aisle 13 ft. wide, south aisle 19 ft. 3 in. wide, south porch, and west tower 13 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The width across nave and aisles is 56 ft. 6 in. There is a small vestry on the north side of the chancel.
The south side of the chancel, the aisles, clearstory and tower are faced with ashlar, but elsewhere the walling is of rubble, or coursed dressed stones; the roofs are all of low pitch and leaded, except that of the porch, which is covered with stone slates. There are plain parapets to the chancel, but those of the aisles and clearstory are battlemented; the lead of the transept roofs overhangs. Internally, except in the chancel, the plaster has been stripped from the walls.
No part of the present building is older than the 13th century. A church is known to have existed in the 12th century, and though evidence of its plan is wanting, it is not unlikely that it was an aisleless building with a tower between the nave and chancel and a transeptal chapel on the north side of the tower in the position of the present north transept. It is, however, possible that, instead of its developing normally from an earlier plan, the 13th-century building was set out afresh with aisled nave of four bays, chancel, and north transeptal chapel as at present. The existing four eastern bays of the nave, with three piers on each side, are of this period, together with the south doorway and the arches which separate the north transept from the chancel and from the north aisle of the nave. In the 14th century, after its appropriation in 1311, a general reconstruction and enlargement of the church took place, when a transeptal chapel was added on the south side, or a former one enlarged, the chancel remodelled, the south aisle widened and a porch built, the nave extended westward by a bay, and the tower added. The north transept also was either reconstructed or remodelled at its north end, and the outer wall of the north aisle apparently rebuilt on the old foundations. In widening the south aisle the old doorway was re-used, but no other external feature of 13th-century date has survived. During the 15th century new windows were inserted in the aisles and the clearstory erected. Repairs of a minor nature are recorded in the 17th century, but no extensive scheme of restoration appears to have been carried out until 1865–70, when the chancel, being in a ruinous state, had most of its details renewed; the chancel arch and the wall over the south transept were also rebuilt. The north transept, then separated from the church and used as a Sunday-school room, was opened out, a west gallery and the old high pews removed, and the fabric generally put into a state of repair. The tower and porch were restored and the whole of the church repointed in 1920.
The chancel is covered for about half its length by the transepts, and also on the north side by a small modern vestry, which is said to occupy the site of a former sacristy. The five-light east window dates from the restoration, but its tracery was altered in 1912 and is now Perpendicular in character. The three-light lateral windows, one on each side, are also modern, in the style of the 14th century, and the lower part of the walls is panelled. The fittings are all modern. No ancient ritual arrangements survive, but the original altar slab, found in the floor at the restoration, has been set up. The 13th-century arch between the chancel and north transept is of two chamfered orders on half-round responds with moulded capitals and bases and hood-mould with headstops on the side towards the chancel. The capitals are enriched with nail-head (east) and dog-tooth (west). The wider 14th-century arch to the south transept is of two orders, each with two hollow chamfers, on half-round responds with fillets, and moulded capitals and bases. The arch between the chancel and the nave is of the same character, but modern, the inner order on clustered responds and the outer continued to the ground. There is a modern low stone screen, or dwarf wall."
SOURCE - (
visit link)