"The church of ST. ANDREW stands on the summit of the hill and consists of chancel 32 ft. by 18 ft., with organ chamber on the north side, clearstoried nave of four bays 55 ft. 9 in. by 18ft., north and south aisles respectively 7 ft. 6 in. and 8 ft. wide, south porch, and west tower 11 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The width across nave and aisles is 38 ft. 6 in.
The church is built throughout of rubble and has low-pitched leaded roofs to chancel and nave, the aisles being covered with modern slates. The nave has a battlemented parapet, which is continued along the east gable, but the parapets of the chancel and aisles are plain. The porch has a stone-slated eaved roof. With the exception of the tower, all the walls are plastered internally.
In the main the building is of late 12th-century date (c. 1180–90), to which period the existing nave arcades and aisles belong, the tower being not very much later, added probably early in the 13th century. In the 14th century new windows were inserted in the north aisle and the chancel seems to have been remodelled, or perhaps wholly rebuilt on its present plan, but most of its mediæval details were obliterated in a restoration about a century ago, and in 1892 it was pulled down and the present chancel built. In the 15th century new windows were inserted in the south aisle and the clearstory added, the erection of which appears to have necessitated the renewal of the middle pillar of the nave arcades, the new pillars being in the style of the period. The old seating was removed in 1847 and in 1861 the tower was restored and strengthened by the addition of buttresses. The porch has been rebuilt and a vestry added on the north side of the tower, entered from the aisle.
The chancel is divided externally into two unequal bays and has diagonal angle buttresses and a re-used 15th-century east window of three lights, the tracery of which, however, is modern. No other ancient features remain, the trefoil-headed 14th-century piscina with fluted bowl supported by a female head being now in the vestry. The eastern bay, or sanctuary, is lighted on each side by two single-light windows, and the shorter western bay by a two-light window on the south. The chancel arch is modern and of two orders, the inner order chamfered on half-round responds with moulded capitals and bases, and the outer with continuous wave moulding. The chancel is elaborately furnished and has modern sedilia, piscina and credence, and good wrought-iron dwarf screen and gates.
The nave arcades are alike and consist of four pointed arches of two chamfered orders with unstopped hood-moulds on cylindrical pillars and halfround responds, the capitals of which are carved with early incurved stiff-leaf foliage, and have octagonal abaci; the circular moulded bases stand on octagonal plinths. The 15th-century middle pillar on each side is on plan an oblong set north and south, down the angles of which the outer chamfer of the arch is carried, the longer sides having attached columns with moulded capitals and bases.
The late 12th-century south doorway has a semicircular arch of two orders, the inner with a continuous edge roll, and the outer with very large and roughly wrought tooth ornament, small sunk roundels, and rounded label moulding, springing from two capitals on each side, the shafts of which are gone. On the west side the capitals are scalloped, but those on the east differ in design and have a small fourleaved flower in the common abacus. The north doorway, now blocked, is probably contemporary, but is of very plain character, with rectangular chamfered opening, the head of which is formed by a large plain stone shaped like a tympanum and enclosed by a chamfered hood-mould.
There is an early string chamfered on both edges at sill level round the south aisle outside, and both aisles at the east end retain their original widely splayed single-light windows, that in the south aisle being round-headed, the other (now opening to the organ chamber) a lancet. No ancient ritual arrangements remain in the aisles, but since 1895 the east end of the south aisle has been used as a chapel. Of the 15th-century windows in this aisle that at the west end is pointed and of two cinquefoiled lights; the others are of three lights, those on each side of the porch square-headed and with vertical tracery, the easternmost pointed. The north aisle is divided externally into three bays by later buttresses and is lighted by two square-headed 14th-century windows, the easternmost of three lights, and that in the western bay of two, but the latter is not in its original position and its tracery is restored.
The four-centred clearstory windows, four on each side, are of two cinquefoiled lights with hood-moulds and the nave gable has a crocketed pinnacle at the apex.
The tower is of three stages marked by strings, with thrice chamfered plinth, widely splayed west lancet in the lower stage, and a rather larger one in the middle stage on the north and south sides. There is no vice. The bell-chamber windows consist of two lancet lights divided by a mid-shaft with moulded capital and base, set within a chamfered pointed arch with shafted jambs, and hood-mould with notch stops; the spandrels are pierced. The tower terminates with a plain parapet, behind which rises a very short broach spire with plain angles and two-light gabled openings near the base. The modern four-stage buttresses are well set back from the angles. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of three chamfered orders with hood-mould on the nave side only, the outer order continuous and the two inner springing from clustered responds with mutilated bases and moulded capitals enriched with nail-head.
The font is ancient and may be of 12th-century date; it has a square bowl with bevelled angles, and stands on a short stem and chamfered plinth.
Some Jacobean arched panels have been worked up in the modern pulpit. There is an old iron-bound oak chest with one lock in the south aisle.
Two coped stone coffin lids, perhaps of 14th-century date, formerly in the churchyard, are now inside the building. They are similar in type, showing the exposed head and feet of an effigy, but of the larger only the upper part remains. At the east end of the north aisle is a floor slab with an incised cross of somewhat unusual character. There are no monuments earlier than the end of the 18th century. In the churchyard is a War Memorial Cross.
There are five bells, a new treble by Taylor, of Loughborough, having been added in 1887 to a former ring of four, and the tenor recast. The second and third, dated respectively 1610 and 1621, are by Tobie Norris (I) of Stamford, and the fourth is by Taylor, 1861.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1569–70, and a cup, two patens, flagon, and almsdish of 1749–50, the latter pieces inscribed 'Given to the church of Hambleton in Rutland in memory of the Revd. Willm. Gardiner, LL.B., 40 years vicar of the said parish 1750.'
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all entries 1558–1653; (ii) 1654–1715; (iii) 1716–49; (iv) baptisms and burials 1750–1800, marriages 1750–54; (v) baptisms and burials 1801–12; (vi) marriages 1754–1812. In the second volume is a register of briefs 1707–16, and in the third a similar register 1716–48. The fifth volume contains 'A valuation of the Lordship of Hambleton made in 1792.' There are churchwardens' accounts 1759–1879, and overseers' accounts 1781–1836."
SOURCE - (
visit link)