Description

WEYMOUTH

SY78SW CHURCH ROAD, Preston
873-1/3/463 (South side)
12/12/53 Church of St Andrew

GV II*

Anglican parish church. C14 nave, tower arch and N doorway,
C15 chancel and nave refenestration, C16 tower rebuild, and S
aisle (RCHME); 1855 restoration under TH Wyatt.
MATERIALS: coursed Portland rubble with ashlar dressings, lead
roof to nave and aisle, slate to chancel and N porch.
PLAN: wide nave without clerestorey, W tower and N porch,
narrower chancel but with steep roof, S aisle.
EXTERIOR: square tower in 2 stages, with moulded string and
parapet course, to bold crenellations and 4 gargoyles, short
set-back buttresses with 2 offsets to the W, and deep plinth.
The W door is in a high pointed arch with C14 roll-mould
surround, and under 2-light C14 cusped window. The top stage
has a 2-light louvred cusped window to each face; N side also
has a small rectangular light at mid string level, and a clock
face.
A flight of stairs to the underground flat-roofed boiler house
adjoins the W end of the aisle, with a free-standing
asbestos-cement flue. There are crenellations, as to the
tower, on 3 sides, and 3-light segmental-headed C15 windows in
a wide casement moulding with labels to stops; to E and W they
are cusped, but the two S windows are uncusped. The central S
doorway, now blocked, has mouldings as at W doorway. Diagonal
buttress to the left, and 3 square buttresses. Two square
downpipes have hopper-heads dated 1855.
The chancel has high coped gables with terminal stone crosses,
and a stone eaves course each side. The 3-light S window is
under a square label course, and the E window is 3-light with
casement mould. The chancel is without plinth.
The vestry, N of the chancel, C20, with flat roof, and a
3-light window to the E, 5-light to the N, and a sunk panel
with door and single light to the W. The N side of the nave
has a stone eaves course as to the Chancel, and a 3-light
cusped window each side of the porch; that to the left of the
porch has small carved figures as label stops, and the other
has square stops.
The porch, with coped gable, has the stone eaves course, a C14
outer doorway on responds with foliage capitals, down one step
to the stone floor with a stone bench each side. Inner door is
C19 plank with strap hinges, under plain chamfered arch; to
the right are remains of a mediaeval stoup, and in the left

wall is a small image niche.
INTERIOR: the wide 4-bay nave has plastered walls, a heavy C14
double-chamfered tower arch, chancel arch including a wide
double wave to keel edge, and arcade of 4-centred arches on
piers of 4 shafts and 4 hollows. The roof is C19, in low
pitch, the principals carried on corbels. The stone floor
includes several large memorial slabs at the E end. The S
aisle has a C19 lean-to roof and stone floor.
In both nave and aisle the window to the W has a slender
colonnette to the rear arch, and in the E window mouldings are
carried down to the sills. There is an opening for the former
rood to the right of the chancel arch, and the upper part of
the stone stair remains in the aisle. Upper part of the S
doorway opening remains as a niche above the lower blocking.
The chancel, on 2+2 steps, has mid C19 painted panelled barrel
ceiling and coloured encaustic tile floor. A broad squint from
the S aisle, and door to the vestry.
STAINED GLASS: chancel E window was replaced after destruction
during World War II; the S window contains a central panel to
Constance (Constance Grace Pinwill Conway), d.1921, aged 13.
The glass, formerly in Weymouth College Chapel incorporates
musical notes. The design by Catherine Ewbank. Adjacent to
pulpit is pictorial window to Charles Gaskell Falkner, d.1932,
but inserted in 1949, by Stammers of York.
FITTINGS: pews are plain pine; octagonal pulpit, communion
rail, and reredos of c1930 by Revd CF Metcalf. Square Purbeck
marble font bowl of c1200 is set on a retooled base.
MONUMENTS: include white marble tablet on black marble ground,
on the N chancel wall, to Octavius Piers, 32 years pastor,
d.1848, by Haggett; to N of altar, a deep square recess in C19
projecting stone frame contains an early C17 kneeling figure
with some remains of colour, above a stone plaque with naive
lettering, to an un-named vicar who died in 1614, aged 32; in
the aisle a limestone monument to Charles Gill, d.1859, is in
the form of an upright vesica piscis.
(RCHME: Dorset, South-East: London: 1970-: 361; The Buildings
of England: Newman J & Pevsner N: Dorset: London: 1972-: 349).

Listing NGR: SY7058182968

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554132

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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