Church of St Andrew

Details

TL 5973 SOHAM HIGH STREET (West Side) 13/58 Church of St. Andrew 19.8.59 GV I

Minster Church, c.1180-90 of cruciform plan. In C15 the church was extended by one bay to the west and the west tower built. The late C12 nave arcade and crossing are particularly fine, as are the C15 roof, pews, misericords and screen. The church is constructed of rubble and pebblestone with flint and clunch. The interior stonework is of clunch. Restoration has been carried out in Ketton, particularly to door and window openings. West tower early C15, of four stages on double splayed plinth with band of blind quatrefoil flushwork and surmounted by a stepped and embattled parapet with crocketed finials at corners and to centre, a frieze of flushwork, and a cornice with mask and other ornament. Four-stage diagonal buttressing except for south-east corner which has a newel staircase. West doorway in two-centred arch of two wave moulded orders in a square head with quatrefoils to spandrels. West window of four cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in two- centred arch. The roof to the original late C12 nave was raised when the clerestorey was added but at the east end part of the original roof is visible. Each side of clerestorey has a string course with rosettes above five windows of three cinquefoil lights, each in four-centred heads. The south aisle and porch are C14 but the window and door openings are much restored. The south transept is late C14 with a rebuilt C15 gable end wall of Barnack stone with octagonal pinnacles at the corners surmounted by grotesques. A plinth and string-course are continued from the south transept to the chancel. There is a restored four- light window. The south side of the chancel has one C14 window of two cinquefoil lights with a foiled head in two-centred arch and two other restored windows. The jamb of a C12 south doorway with a round-headed arch is visible. Large C14 east window, of five cinquefoil lights with flowing tracery, restored. The north aisle and transept are similar to the south except for a north vestry, C14 with two original windows and a C15 north chapel between the north aisle and north vestry. The north porch is C15 and in two bays. Embattled parapet with chequer- board pattern frieze of clunch and flint flushwork with crocketed pinnacles at corners. The plinth is splayed and in two stages and has a similar frieze of flushwork. Small niche above two-centred archway with hollow and roll moulding. The inner archway is C14, two-centred with hollow and roll moulding and with a string-course carried over the archway as a label. Interior. Except for the early C15 west tower and west bay of the nave arcade, nearly the whole church is c.1180-90. The original nave arcade is in four bays. Two-centred arches of two unmoulded orders on alternating round and octagonal columns with scallop capitals. Fine C15 roof. Tie beams on jackposts with moulded braces and with angels and other figures carved to the soffits of the intermediate principal rafters. The arches at the crossing are similar to those at the nave arcade, and are carried on half-round responds to the piers, with the capitals carved with foliate ornament. The crossing arch has bands of dogtooth, merlon and other ornament of 1180-90. There is a C15 archway between the chancel and the north chapel, and a C13 lancet window, now blocked between the north vestry and chancel. In the chancel there are traces of C14 wall painting on the north, probably of a saint, and on either side of the east window two niches with figures. In the south wall there is a triple sedilia, C14, with cusped ogee arches in square heads with tracery to spandrels flanked by crocketed pinnacles. The piscina is in similar style. In the south transept, a double piscina, C14, of clunch with hollow and roll moulding to two, two-centred arches. In the north transept a fine C14 tomb recess with cusping to an ogee arch with running foliate ornament, flanked by crocketed pinnacles, and a piscina to the right hand with trefoil cusping to two-centred arch. Wall monument, north chapel, Edward Bernes, Esquire and Dorothy, his wife, 1598. The screen between north transept and north chapel is C15 and in three bays. Cusping to ogee heads and with vertical tracery, part restored. The door between north vestry and chancel is C15. The planks have cover strips and the door still retains the original ironwork. In the nave, many of the pew ends have fine original carving of C15, and the misericords, now at the west end of the nave, are also C15. Pevsner: Buildings of England (Cambs), p.457. Olorenshaw, J.R: Notes on the Church of St. Andrew (1905).

Listing NGR: TL5932873177

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

48866

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (1970), 457

Other
Olorenshaw, JR , Notes on the Church of St Andrew, 1905,

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