Church Heritage Record 640083

As built - 3-bay aisleless nave with north porch. Chancel with south organ chamber. Basement with vestry and boiler room. Post 1980s – westernmost bay partitioned by a glazed screen with suspended ceiling to form narthex. Extension to west with kitchen and two social rooms and WC to east of the north door.

[Approximate] Nave 8½ m (28ft) long x 6m (20ft) wide, narthex 5m (16½ ft) long x 6m (20ft) wide, chancel 5m (16½ ft) long.

Thongsbridge became established in the 19th Century with the construction of textile and wool mills. A train station opened in the village in 1850 but closed in the 1950s (a dismantled railway is marked on maps to the west of the church).

St Andrews was built as a mission church in 1877, funded by Alfred Sykes [1845-1915], son of wealthy mill owners who built and owned Rock Mills at Brockholes and who lived in Thongsbridge. His donations are recorded by a plaque on the south wall. In 1891 school rooms were built to accommodate the Sunday School and community activities. In 1938 land above the School was acquired to provide a graveyard though no burials were ever made. The church was consecrated in 1938.

St Andrew’s is a simple stone church in the Early English style with steeply pitched roofs and pointed lancet windows. The roofline of the nave and chancel are continuous. A stone cross finial is situated over the east gable and a bellcote, containing a single bell and surmounted by a metal cross finial, is positioned at the opposite end. The use of local stone blends the church in with the local character of the area.

The east end, which is obscured by a rhododendron bush, is two storeys high as the basement is above ground. This is made possible by the change in ground level across the plot. A plinth runs around the base of the original elevations of the church. The east window is of two-lights with a hoodmould with figurative stops. Beneath a four-light window in the gabled west elevation a single-storey flat roofed extension projects. Views of the west elevation are restricted by the extension and the rising bank beyond it. Windows from the original west wall have been relocated into the new north wall where the extension envelopes the gabled north porch.

The north and south elevations have paired lancets under square-headed lintels, one three-light window and one two-light window. The chancel has two two-light windows in the north wall and a single light in the south wall. Buttresses are placed between the bay divisions of the north and south elevations. Downpipes are a mixture of cast iron and PVC. On the south side, the organ chamber projects like a south transept. An additional door pierces the west elevation.

Principal entry to the church is through the north porch which is accessed up two steps and through an oak door. Inside the floor is laid with stone flags. To the west is a kitchen and to the east is a bathroom. Another oak door opens into the west end, now narthex. Here an inserted ceiling makes the space low and obscures the original windows in the south wall whilst those in the north wall are blind following the construction of the extension. Two modern rooms, used as a vestry and a children’s room, are to the west of this space.

The walls of the narthex are painted and the floors covered with carpet. Old heating pipes can be seen at ground level along the north and south walls. Upholstered metal framed chairs provide flexible seating. A glazed soft-wood partition separates this area from the nave and can be opened to extend the service area if required.

The nave is seated with pine pews, with carpet runners, fixed to level timber boarded platforms. The end of each pew is fitted with an umbrella holder and decorated with a single carved floral motif. A pew at the east end of the south aisle is possibly the remains of a children’s pew. Additional stackable upholstered wood-framed chairs are stored behind the back row of pews. Carpet is laid in the aisle and at the east end. The walls are plastered and painted though the north and south walls have boarded panelling to the height of the pews.

Two original three-branched brass light fittings, with energy saving light bulbs, light the interior. A third can be seen in the void above the narthex which is screened by a plastic sheet. Natural light can fill the interior as all of the windows, bar that at the east, are filled with cathedral glass in a mixture of rectangular and diamond leaded panes. The glass in the west windows could not be inspected but is probably also cathedral glass. A scissor-braced roof system covers the nave, with lath and plaster behind. Some horizontal steel tie-beams have been inserted across the width of the church. Some memorial plaques are fixed to the south wall.

A door in the south-east of the nave wall leads behind the organ and down to the original vestry situated in the basement beneath the chancel. The east wall in the basement shows signs of damp, the application of whitewash exacerbates the visual appearance. The vestry has a stone flag floor and a fireplace. There are additional single lights in the north wall and in the stairway. Pipes in the boiler room have asbestos lagging.

Back in the main body of the church the chancel is raised by two steps. A pointed chancel arch is formed by the introduction of two arched wooden trusses resting on corbel blocks. The chancel roof trusses are painted and the floor is carpeted throughout. Choir stalls with poppyheads and open tracery frontals are fixed to the north and south sides, they feature several small plaques. The organ is beneath a pointed arch to the south. Commemorative plaques are fitted above the console.

The sanctuary is raised by another step. The east window contains simple stained glass with a coloured pattern.