Church of St Andrew

Details

ALDERTON (Off) THE STREET TM 34 SW 10/7 Church of St Andrew 16/3/66 G.V. II Church. C14, C15 and C19. The chancel rebuilt in 1862 and the nave restored and re-roofed in 1864 by A W Blomfield. Knapped and rubble flint with brick and ashlar dressings and slate roofs. West tower (ruinous), nave and chancel, north western porch and south-eastern vestry. Tower: C15. Most of the facing stone has now gone. West front; projecting plinth with moulded ashlar offset to its top. Diagonal buttresses which have now almost entirely lost their outer faces. Vertical ashlar dressings remain to the inner angles. Richly moulded door surround to the centre of ashlar with wave, ogee and roll mouldings and hollow chamfer above which is a hollow chamfered hood mould with miniature square flower bosses. Similar rectangular surround above this enclosing ashlar spandrels which have shields within circular, cusped panels. Daggers to the angles. Above this are the remains of an arcade of flushwork with trefoil heads, the ashlar surround having mostly disappeared. String course above this on which rests a tall Perpendicular window with chamfered and wave moulded ashlar surround, the tracery having now all disappeared save for stubs at the springing of the bars. South face: blank with a C19 buttress at right of ashlar dressed flint rubble with knapped flint to the outer face. North face: similar. East face: abuts the nave to the level of the ridge and has been mostly rebuilt in the C19. The upper stages of the tower have now fallen and a late C18 print shows it to have had a further 3 windows to the northern and southern sides and a battlemented parapet. Nave: North face: porch to its right which has diagonal buttresses to the corners which die back by 2 offsets. Deep plinth running around the body Qf the porch. Slightly projecting lower plinth with facings of knapped flint, now partially replaced with rubble flint. This dies back via an offset to the upper level of the plinth which has square panels of flushwork showing crowned initials, shields, mouchettes within a circle and 4 circles within a circle. This, too, dies back by a moulded offset. Above this on the north face and continuing across the inner flanks of the buttresses and their outer faces are arcaded panels of flushwork, those with rounded heads containing crocketed ogee arches; those with trefoil heads being blank. This arcade continues around the buttresses and across their outer faces. Similar arcade above to either side of the doorway. This doorway has a richly moulded ashlar surround with colonnettes to the outer edges and jambs, with moulded capitals and bases. The arch has casement mouldings, keel and wave mouldings. Moulded rectangular surround above enclosing the spandrels which show a man with spear at left and a crouching dragon at right. Above this is a further arcade of flushwork panels, now much weathered but originally having 3 canopied niches to the centre of which the lateral ones survive with buttressed shafts to either side and canted ledges but now infilled with rubble. The ledge and left hand shaft are all that remain of the central niche. Shallow gable above, now rebuilt in rubble flint and brick, with an ashlar coping. The right and left hand flanks have central windows with 4-centred arches and moulded ashlar surrounds originally containing tracery but now blocked. The walling here is a mixture of knapped flint set with small square ashlar stones. Nave walling at either side consists of knapped flints set between bands of C15 bricks and tiles with some rubble replacements. where the wall has been patched the bricks and tiles have disappeared. To left of the porch are two C19 windows with reticulated tracery and voussoirs of radiating bricks between which are panels of knapped flint. Buttresses to centre and extreme left. South face: 3 windows with reticulated tracery similar to those of the north face with C19 buttresses between and to extreme right and left. The walling here appears to have been entirely replaced c.1864. To left is a doorway with richly moulded C19 ashlar surround of wave and keel mouldings and similar brick voussoirs. Chancel: north side; buttresses to left of centre and extreme left. 3-light windows to right with reticulated tracery. Priest's door to centre with moulded ashlar surround. South face: projecting lean-to vestry at left with blank wall at south and 2-light window to the right flank with ogee trefoil heads. To right of the vestry is a 2-light window with ogee-headed cusped lights. Buttress to extreme right. East face: buttresses at far right and left. String course at the level of their dying which runs across the wall face and dips to the centre to form the sill of a 5-light window of Decorated tracery with cinquefoil heads to the lights and quatrefoils and mouchettes to the apex.

Interior: porch: church doorway with wave and keel mouldings. Nave: roof, C19, pine. Nine bays of which every third truss has wall posts supported on corbels. Chamfered tie beams. Central king posts and cusped arch braces connecting to the collars from which spring king posts with angle braces. The subsidiary trusses are similar save for the absence of wall posts or tie beams. Piscina to south eastern corner with ashlar surround, now mutilated but originally cusped. Above this, to the left hand reveal of the south eastern nave window is a niche with crocketed gablets to 2 sides and miniature vault. Blocked doorway with ashlar surround to eastern end of the northern wall. Chancel: the roof is boarded with one truss which has cusped and pierced arch braces springing from stone corbels which rest on black marble posts sitting on square lower corbels. Memorial of 1910 to Charles Goodwyn Archer, rector of the church, recording the rebuilding of the chancel and restoration of the nave and the dates of the work. Although either dilapidated or heavily restored the church retains elements of a significant Perpendicular building but as The Builder noted in 1865, the church had been restored and rebuilt "to such an extent that it may be said to be rebuilt." The porch is similar in form and details to that at the Church of St Mary, Ufford, which is more complete.

Sources: Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Suffolk 1975 H Munro Cautley, Suffolk Churches 1982

Listing NGR: TM3428941675

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

285369

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Munro Cautley, H, Suffolk Churches and their Treasures, (1937)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, (1974)

End of official list entry

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