- Heritage

St Andrew's Church

Once a glorious Medieval church, St Andrew?s now lies in picturesque ruin by the sea, with only the lofty 14th century tower (preserved as a sea mark) and a curtain of original walling surviving. A smaller thatched-roof church, built in 1672 when the inhabitants were given permission to dismantle the older church and still in use, nestles inside the ruins. One hopes that the rapidly encroaching sea will leave this lovely place to be enjoyed for a few more decades…

St Andrew's Church

This worn but handsome marshland church has a lovely brick-and-stone tower and a lofty interior. The foot of the tower contains a curious cell or oratory. The church was built in the 15th-century on an older site where Roman as well as Medieval remains have been found. There is some glorious 20th-century stained glass in the windows and the benches in the chancel have beautifully carved ends…

St Andrew's Church

This beautiful church sits in a tree-filled churchyard and has a calm and serene atmosphere. There is a 14th-century steeple and a wonderfully carved Norman doorway. Brilliant stained glass lights the austere but lovely interior…

St Andrew's Church

This handsome 14th-century church is lit with Victorian stained glass featuring scenes from the New Testament. Carved stone angels play instruments but mortals must content themselves with the beautifully decorated organ. Buckland is a tiny village on Ermine Street, where it crosses the chalk uplands between Buntingford and Royston: The church is at the highest point away from the road. The nave and chancel date from about 1348, where as the tower, south aisle, porch and south door from the 1400s. There is some Medieval stone carving in corbels flanking the windows, there’s also some Medieval glass, 15th-century brasses, memorials from later years and a medley of 19th-century fittings…

St Andrew's Church

Possibly of Saxon origin, and considered to be the oldest building in Brent, St Andrew’s Old Church nestles in a wooded grove to the south of its Victorian successor which dominates the skyline. St Andrew’s retains the feel of an old country parish church. Inside are fine brasses and memorials to well-known local families dating from the 16th- to 19th-centuries…

St Andrew's Church

Perched on Grey Mare Hill (293 metres high), St Andrew’s was built in 1769 on the site of a much older church. Inside, it is a simple and appealing cruciform church, with sturdy stone ribs over the crossing. As well as some fine 18th-century headstones in the churchyard, there is also the fantastic domed structure of the Hopper Mausoleum, erected in 1752, with obelisks above and statues in carved niches on the sides…

St Andrew's Church

Bywell was once a thriving market town beside the Tyne, though little now remains except the castle, a Medieval market cross, the Hall, and two churches dating from Saxon times. The tall tower of St Andrew?s is a magnificent example of Saxon building. Dating from about 850, it has massive walls 5 metres thick, clearly intended for defence; but it is much more than a defensive structure. It is built from a lovely mixture of cream, yellow, brown and even red sandstone and has the small rounded windows characteristic of the time. The body of the church dates from the 13th-century and was considerably enlarged and restored in 1871. Most of the interior dates from this Victorian restoration, including the mosaic floor of the sanctuary and the glittering reredos. There is very fine Victorian stained glass, some by the notable designer William Wailes, who is buried at the other Bywell church, St Peter?s. Inside the church, and in some places set into the outside walls, are magnificent early Medieval grave slabs. They have lovely bold carving, with emblems denoting the status of the person they commemorate swords, shields, a hunting horn, shears and a book…

St Andrew's Church

A little bit of Italy in Waterloo Street’ In the early 1820s, the Prince Regent made the old fishing towns of Brighton and Hove the most fashionable place to be. Here, St Andrew’s was built to serve wealthy society, near a gleaming new estate of terraced mansions by the sea. Set back from the sea front, the Italian Renaissance style and symmetry and grandeur of this 1827 church by the famous architect Sir Charles Barry, perfectly matches the neighbouring squares and terraces. Inside, light streams through skylights and dances through the stained glass. In 1925 Randoll Blacking added superb baldacchinos over the altar and font to fulfil the parish priest’s desire that St Andrew’s should become ‘a little bit of Italy in Waterloo Street’. The beautiful painted ceiling features the sun surrounded by a crescent moon, a comet, Saturn and stars. A series of fine 19th-century monuments offer an excellent introduction to the good and great who worshipped here in the church’s heyday…

St Andrew's Church

Just north of Ilchester over the River Yeo, St Andrew’s is a simple Medieval church next to a farmyard. It was restored in 1878 by Charles Benson. Its site close to a large Roman cemetery beside the Fosse Way, is of outstanding archaeological importance. An excavation of the mound on which it stands could well reveal the foundations of a Saxon minster noted in the Domesday Book and perhaps reveal signs of an earlier pre-Christian/pagan temple…

St Andrew's Church

A mile from its village down a farm track through fields, the Old St Andrew’s Church is set beautifully against a backdrop of tall trees, with the great Abbey of Downside towering beyond. St Andrew?s is simple and unassuming outside, but the south porch is of great antiquarian interest. Inside, the church has a treasure trove of Georgian furnishings including box pews, pulpit, desk, west gallery and hat pegs. Everything here is delightfully unrestored and atmospheric…