St Andrew's Church is a
redundant Anglican church in the village of
Buckland,
Hertfordshire, England. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
,
and is under the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.
The church stands at the highest point in the village to the east of
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London ('' Londinium'') to Lincoln (''Lindum Colonia'') and York (''Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earningas' ...
, now the
A10 road, between
Royston and
Buntingford.
[
]
History
The nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
were built in about 1348.[ The tower was added in about 1400, and the south ]aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
and south porch followed in the late 15th century. Restorations took place in 1848 and 1875. In about 1880 a vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
and organ chamber were added, and the exteriors of the nave and aisle were restored in 1893.[
]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
with stone dressings. The roofs are in red tiles. Its plan consists of a narrow three- bay nave with a broad south aisle and a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a vestry and organ chamber to the north, and a large west tower. The tower is set on a moulded plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...
. It is in three stages separated by string courses, with diagonal buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
es, and a battlement
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...
ed parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
. In the bottom stage is a west doorway with a pointed arch, above which is a two-light window. The bell openings in the top stage have two lights. On the summit of the tower is a pyramidal spire. In the north wall of the nave are three two-light 14th-century windows and a 15th-century blocked doorway. The east window in the chancel has three lights dating from the 19th century in 15th-century style. In the south wall of the chancel are two two-light 14th-century windows, with a doorway from the same period between them. The south aisle has three-light 15th-century windows, two in the south wall, and one each in each of the east and west walls. The south porch has diagonal buttresses, and two-light windows on each side. Over the entrance arch is a niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
with a cinquefoil
''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 300Guillén, A., et al. (2005)Reproductive biology of the Iberian species of ''Potentilla'' L. (Rosaceae).''Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'' 1(62) 9–21. species of annual, biennial and perenn ...
arch.[
]
Interior
Both the nave and the chancel have 19th-century Barrel vault, waggon roofs. Between the nave and south aisle is a three-bay arcade (architecture), arcade. The aisle has an almost flat timber roof dating from the 15th century, and contains Boss (architecture), bosses with foliate carving. In the aisle is a piscina with a trefoil head. The chancel is floored with encaustic tiles. Its north arch is decorated with carvings of angel musicians. The baptismal font, font is made from Barnack stone set on a clunch base. The wooden pulpit dates from the 19th century. Also from that century are four boards on the north wall of the nave with the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the creed#Christian creeds, Creed. There are three groups of monumental brass, brasses on the wall behind the altar with dates in the second half of the 15th century. In the south wall of the aisle is a white alabaster monument dated 1634. The tower contains two monuments dated in the 18th century. In the arcade is a marble tablet in Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style dated 1861, and in the southwest of the chancel is another marble tablet, this one by Francis Leggatt Chantrey, Chantrey, dated 1819. There is some middle Ages, medieval stained glass in two of the windows in the nave.[ The single-manual (music), manual organ was built in 1870 by Henry Jones and Son.]
See also
The Churches Conservation Trust: St Andrew's Church, Buckland
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckland, St Andrew's Church
Grade II* listed churches in Hertfordshire
Church of England church buildings in Hertfordshire
English Gothic architecture in Hertfordshire
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust