Church of St Andrew, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead

Summary

Parish church, built in the early and later C12, C14 to C15, restored 1853-62 by Henry Woodyer, and in 1880-4. Refurbished 1967.

Description

Parish church, built in the early and later C12, extended C14 to C15, restored 1853-62 by Henry Woodyer and in 1880-4.

MATERIALS: knapped flint with Bath freestone dressings. The C12 piers are of chalk blocks or clunch. The spire is shingled; tiled roofs elsewhere.

PLAN: a three-bay south aisle, originally the nave, the former chancel rebuilt as a chantry chapel (Brocas Chapel) in the C14; C19 south porch. The nave is also in three bays, with a west tower with a broached spire and a chancel, the latter rebuilt in the mid-C19. The north aisle, originally in three bays, was extended eastwards in the late C19 to accommodate a chapel and organ chamber, with a single-storey vestry beyond it.

EXTERIOR: the exterior was largely refaced or repaired in the C19 but retains a number of its early door and window openings.

The tower has diagonal buttresses and a chamfered plinth. Nearer the base the original rubble and flint fabric survives. On each face there is a single, narrow, round-headed C12 lancet light to the lower stage, and wider pointed arched lights above. The spire, restored in 1880-2, has three tiers of quatrefoil timber openings on each face and is surmounted by a small octagonal cupola and a weathervane.

The west windows of the south aisle are a pair of C12 lancets; the south windows are of two cusped lights; most are flat headed, the third has a pointed arch. Set tightly against this window is a narrow, pointed arched doorway with a much eroded and restored roll moulded arch. The door has serpentine strap hinges, a ring handle on a star-shaped plate and an elaborate plate to the keyhole. The east window to the chantry chapel is of two ogival lights beneath a pointed arch. Above it is a single, slightly pointed lancet. The medieval south doorway (within the porch) has a pointed arch of multiple moulded orders. The C19 south porch has a wide, slightly bowed, arched entrance with robust chamfered mouldings and a chamfered impost band and plinth to each side. Small buttresses are set back on the returns. In the gable is a small recessed two-light window set in a cusped, recessed panel, surmounted by an integral stone cross. On each return is a small lancet light. Timber outer gates have encircled quatrefoil panels above shafted, cusped arcades. Within the porch, the roof is of exposed rafters.

The chancel, rebuilt or heavily restored in the mid-C19, has angle buttresses and a three-light east window of plain panel tracery. The gable is in coursed stone.

The west end of the north aisle has diagonal buttresses, a four-light window with reticulated tracery and next to it a blocked lancet with a slightly pointed head. The north wall was heavily restored in the C19. Between buttresses, windows are flat-headed with cusped lights beneath a blind quatrefoil panel. Between them is a cusped doorway in a plain surround; all are linked by a moulded cill band. It has a two-light east window with delicate cusped tracery. Beyond is a late C19 flat-roofed vestry with a rectangular east-facing window of four flush, cusped lights.

INTERIOR: the nave arcades have drum piers and responds and round arches. The piers in the south arcade have square abaci and simplified waterleaf capitals and moulded bases, some with leaf spurs, on square plinths, and an incised chevron band above the arcades on the nave side. The north arcade, of which the western respond appears least restored, has square abaci and chamfered capitals, some with incised leaf ornament, and a continuous moulded band above the arches facing the nave.

The tower arch is tall with a pointed head flanked by piers with moulded abaci and bases similar to the north aisle. An unmoulded arch, formerly the C12 chancel arch, leads from the south aisle to the chantry chapel. Although restored, a high proportion of the aisle, Brocas Chapel and tower windows retain elements of their original jambs, rear arches and tracery.

Clerestory windows, which are not visible externally, are of three cusped lights beneath three-centred arches, with moulded rear arches on engaged shafts.

The nave, chancel, south aisle and Brocas chapel have C19 panelled wagon roofs with quarter-moulded ribs, but in the nave, aisles and chapel appear to retain earlier moulded wall plates. The north aisle has a wind-braced, side purlin roof, with moulded tie beams and collars, braces to the collars and a deep moulded wall plate. The western three bays are original, the eastern two bays, one of which has cusped braces, are later C19.

The chancel was remodelled by Woodyer who created two-bay arcades of moulded, stilted arches to each side. On the north side the central pier has an elaborate carved capital; the entrance to the south has a figure head boss. The rood screen has traceried panels on moulded shafts and a pair of iron gates (now gilded) with quatrefoil traceried panels. The reredos, designed by Woodyer, sculpted by T Nicholls in marble and alabaster, depicts Christ in Majesty. Within the sanctuary are traces of wall painting comprising a repeated pattern of an encircled cross, with radiating beams at each quadrant, on a blue St Andrew’s cross, superimposed on a grey linear grid resembling ashlar blocks. High up above the south arcade is a fragment of Gothic text.

The Brocas chapel: below the south-east window is an ogival-headed piscina with a projecting foliated basin. Next to it is a tomb recess with an ogival head, the apex curtailed by the C18 monument above, probably associated with Sir Bernard de Brocas (d.1396). The reredos, c.1920 by FE Howard, depicting the Crucifixion flanked unusually by St Michael, St George, St Nicholas and St Joan, is a war memorial, commemorating those fallen in the 1914-18 war.

The drum font, probably C12, is decorated with a blind arcade of round arches beneath a chevron band and has a cable moulded base. The pulpit, probably also by Woodyer, is octagonal and of timber panels (now painted) on a stone base. There is a single late medieval pew with poppy head bench ends.

Glass: most of the stained glass is by Clayton and Bell, the clerestory windows by Hardman, the south chancel window by Morris and Co. The south-eastern aisle window is by Kempe (1902), the south-eastern chantry chapel window by Sir Ninian Comper (1932).

Monuments include: in the north aisle a neoclassical marble wall tablet to Earl Harcourt (d 1833) by Robert Sievier; a bronze wall tablet to TT Carter (d 1901) by W Bainbridge Reynolds; a tablet to GF Henson (1918) by TG Jackson and in the chantry chapel a large mid-C18 aedicular, pedimented wall monument in marble to the Jenyns family.

Above the south aisle arch is 'Victory', a sculpted winged crucifix by Josephina de Vasconcellos, installed in 1967. Above the chancel arch is 'The Risen Christ' of 1967, a wall painting by Anthony Ballantine.

History

The church of St Andrew, Clewer, dates from the early C12; the present south aisle and chapel were formerly the nave and chancel of the original church. Later in the C12 the current nave was added, forming a north aisle, before it in turn was modified to create a nave, with a west tower and chancel. A north aisle was added c.1180 and rebuilt or enlarged in the C14 or C15. Also during the C14 or early C15, the nave was heightened, adding the clerestory windows. The Brocas Chapel, built as a chantry chapel by Sir Bernard Brocas for his late wife Mary, was added in the C14, probably extending the original chancel.

From 1844-80 the Rev Thomas T Carter, a High Churchman and supporter of the Oxford Movement was rector. It was during his incumbency that the church was restored between 1853 and 1862 by the architect Henry Woodyer, under whose auspices the chancel was rebuilt, roofs were replaced and a new rood screen, reredos and presumably the pulpit were installed.

Henry Woodyer (1815-96), having considerable private means, was a ‘gentleman-architect’ who based himself at Grafham, Surrey. He was a pupil of the great church architect William Butterfield and established a strong reputation himself for his church work. The greatest concentration of his work is in Surrey and the adjacent counties. His masterpiece is often considered to be Dorking parish church.

In 1967 the church was refurbished by the architect Roderick Gradidge who introduced the current decorative scheme. The font was mounted in its present position at the west end of the south aisle, the rood screen was painted - or perhaps repainted – and the mural above it, depicting the Risen Lord, by Anthony Ballantine was commissioned.

The churchyard was extended westwards in the C19, and the earliest memorials are to the south and east of the church. Notable among these are two mid-C18 headstones to members of the Charlton family. The churchyard was probably extended in 1866, when the entrance lodge and lychgate (together listed Grade II), also designed by Woodyer, were built. A path flanked by yew and holly leads from the lodge to the south door, past a large memorial cross. Memorials of note include a vast granite slab to Daniel Gooch, railway pioneer (d.1889), who lived at Clewer Park; a poignant memorial to Owen George Allum, seventeen year old telegraph boy aboard the Titanic (d.1912) and memorial to Mary Anne Hull, nurse to Queen Victoria’s children (d.1888). Within the churchyard are 22 scattered War Grave Commission headstones, 18 from the First World War and four from the Second World War.

Reasons for Listing

The church of St Andrew, Clewer, built in the early and later C12, C14 to C15, restored 1853-62 by Henry Woodyer, and in 1880-4, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: in the evolution, stylistic development and decorative treatment of a C12 church and its extension in the C14 and C15;
* C19 restoration and remodelling: primarily the work of the eminent church architect Henry Woodyer, for the High Churchman, Rev TT Carter;
* Fixtures and fittings: ranging from the C12 font, the C19 ensemble by Woodyer, a good assemblage of C19 and early C20 stained glass, and memorials, including the reredos, unusually designed as memorial to the fallen of the First World War;
* Historic interest: a church site dating from at least the C12, on the River Thames at the foot of the historic town of Windsor.

External Links

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