St Andrew's is a parish church in Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England, built in the 13th century with additions in later centuries. It was restored due to structural concerns in the 19th century. It is a Grade I listed building.

Building

The structure of the church mostly originates from the 15th century, but includes some extant 13th century work in the chancel and 14th century work in the chapel. The building is composed mainly of

rubble stone Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

and

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, with a stone tile roof. There is a tower on the west side of the building on which construction begun in 1434. The tower has many features of a late medieval church including

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s, diagonal buttresses and battlements. The interior of the church consists of a nave, chapels to the north-east and south-east, aisles and a south porch. Sir_Walter_de_Dunstanville_Memorial

The Lady Chapel was the Scrope family chapel as of the mid 15th century. In the early 19th century the structure became unstable and the building was restored, funded chiefly by a member of the Scrope family. There was further restoration to the roof in 1962. Many of the adornments, such as the 19th century chancel fittings bear the Scrope family coat of arms. There is a 19th-century canopied

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Scrope family monument in the Lady Chapel. Within the Lady Chapel there is a late Norman memorial dedicated to a Baron of Castle Combe, Walter de Dunstanville (d. 1270). The effigy is cross legged indicating Dunstanville served in the crusades. In recent years there have been a number of restoration projects for the church, with work being completed to the roof and medieval screen in 2016 and 2018 respectively. The organ was donated in 1911 and renovated in 1988. There is an operational medieval faceless clock at the base of the tower.

Churchyard

There are a number of tombs, memorials and monuments in the

churchyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...

, 25 of which are Grade II listed.

Status

The church is in the area of the Bybrook Team Ministry and is actively used for worship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castle Coombe, Andrew's Church 13th-century church buildings in England St Andrew Grade I listed churches in Wiltshire Diocese of Bristol Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire

Building

Churchyard

Status

See also

References