1 The building consists of two towers, nave with inner and outer north aisles and south aisle, Lady Chapel, choir, sanctuary, vestries and north and south porches. To the exterior, the west tower is the visible remaining 14th century element, a three-stage tower of squared and coursed limestone with rectangular slit windows, paired louvred openings to the bell chamber, and castellation. The remainder of the church is Butterfield's work, in a robust Gothic style, with a continuous roof line, employing geometric tracery to the windows. The body of the church is of five bays; the north elevation has a two-storey, north-west porch and a tall north-east tower with bellchamber, surmounted by pinnacles and a spire. The 19th century tower and spire have high quality polychrome work, using a variety of elements and materials, and a decorative fishscale slate roof. The north side has two aisles and a clerestory to the nave, with hierarchical windows; those to the ground floor are tripartite windows of paired lancets and cinquefoils. The south side has a single aisle with similar windows to those in the north elevation, though these are paired and each pair has a continuous drip mould. There is a large rose window above the organ chamber.
INTERIOR: To the interior, the former nave and north aisle are reused from the 14th century church, becoming the inner and outer north aisles of Butterfield's church. The arcade between the two is of pointed arches carried on slender octagonal columns. The former chancel was converted to a Lady Chapel in the early 20th century. Butterfield's church has nave and south aisle, choir and sanctuary, organ chamber and vestries, one of which is housed in the base of the 19th century tower. The nave arcades are pointed arches carried on muscular piers of banded red and cream stone, with carved capitals; the style is generally early English, though adapted. The interior is highly decorative, increasing in complexity and richness from the west to the east, culminating in the richly decorated marble and polychrome sanctuary. The structural elements of the building are exposed stone, in alternating bands of red and cream stone, with both colours used for architectural details. There are elaborate stencilled ceilings, polychrome tiles to the floor and some wall surfaces, and marble fittings to the east end, where the sanctuary is articulated by a rich decorative scheme, which is prefigured by the polychrome marble chancel arch, springing from foliate carved capitals. There is an extensive stained glass scheme running throughout the church; the east window, showing Christ in Glory, is by the renowned firm of Clayton and Bell, as is the west window. The scheme of stained glass in the remainder of the church is currently unattributed but may be by Alexander Gibbs; it is an extensive scheme with figures from the Old and New Testaments and reads as a narrative around the church. The font is octagonal, dating from Butterfield's rebuilding, in polychrome marble. The pulpit is of oak, with traceried Gothic superstructure set on a marble base of clustered columns. The oak altar, and oak and pine pews, remain from Butterfield's original scheme for the building. The doors throughout have typically exuberant and detailed ironwork to Butterfield's designs. The organ is of several phases, the earliest dating from the end of the 17th century. A number of memorials dating from the 18th and earlier 19th century are reset at the west end of the north aisle.
HISTORY: The current church of St Andrew originated in the 14th century, the medieval church consisted of west tower, nave, chancel and north aisle. In the 1870s, the church, which had become unsafe, was rebuilt by William Butterfield on a much larger footprint, which incorporated the surviving elements of the earlier building. The west tower was retained at the west end of the new church, the nave and aisle of the medieval church became the parallel north aisles of the new building, and the former chancel became the Lady Chapel. To this core was added a new nave, choir, sanctuary, south aisle and organ chamber, and north and south porches. In 1895-6, further additions were made by Ewan Christian to Butterfield's original designs, including the two vestries and the tall north east tower and steeple. The building has remained virtually unaltered since, with the exception of the glassing in of a section of the outer north aisle to create a parish office, and the insertion of a kitchen and lavatories at the base of the tower.
2 Chancel, North and South transepts, nave, two North aisles, South aisle, North and South porches; tower at West end of inner North aisle, and another tower, with spire, adjoining the North transept. Rebuilt in its present form by Butterfield in 1877-9 and the Northeast tower was added in 1896. The inner North aisle occupies the site of the old nave; four bays of the former North arcade are said to be incorporated in the arcade dividing the North aisles, but this can mean no more than re-use of some old material. West tower of very severe appearance and difficult to date from its architectural features, but it would seem to be 14th century. Organ of 1664, enlarged and restored in 19th century. Remains of a medieval font. The church was originally a chapelry of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, and is first recorded in the 12th century.
3 A view of the old church in the Aylesford Collection (circa 1820) shows the existing West tower, a short chancel, nave with South clearstorey, and apparently two South aisles. All the windows, except that in the tower, had lost their tracery and other medieval features.
4 1877-85 by Butterfield. To the existing 14th century and 15th century church he added a new nave to the South and made the old North aisle his outer North aisle. He also added the steeple to the East of the old aisle in 1895-6. The style is late 13th century to early 14th century, with an alternation of red and cream stone and some grey marble for shafts.
5 In 2017 groundworks for a new glass screen between the Lady Chapel and the Vestry revealed a significant quantity of disarticulated human remains.
Below the bones and 0.45m below the modern floor of the church was a later of solid rammed stone which is thought to be the core of the medieval wall foundations of the former chancel which was converted to the Lady Chapel in the 20th century. This wall would have been demolished in the late 19th century prior to the 1870's or 1895-6 construction of the north east tower.
Five 0.30m high brick sleeper walls were also revealed above the medieval foundations which would have supported the flooring of the 19th century church.
The bones were located in a fill between the medieval foundations and the sleeper walls. Adult and juvenile bones were present and includes femore, tibula, humerus, pelvis, ribs, clavicle, mandible and skull fragments from adults and ribs, ulna and skull fragments from the juveniles. |
