St. Andrew, Lyddington, Rutland
Description
The church of St. Andrew is a building of stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, and an embattled western tower with short spire, restored in 1902, and containing 5 bells: the oldest portions of the present church, viz., the tower and spire and the chancel, are of the 14th century: the latter has good Decorated windows, a piscina, triple sedilia and a low-side window: and in the upper part of the walls large earthen vessels have been built in at intervals, mouths outwards, possibly for acoustic reasons: the nave and aisles are Perpendicular and have lofty arcades of five arches: some fragments of old glass linger in the windows and there are traces of wall-painting; the rood screen, though incomplete, remains, and also the stairs thereto: the rails enclosing the communion table on three sides date from 1635: the font is probably Jacobean: the east stained window was erected by J. Crisp Clarke, to the memory of his parents, and there is also a mural brass to J. C. Clarke himself on the north wall of the chancel: there are also brasses to Edward Watson, ob. 1530, with figures of himself his wife and ten children, and to Heylen Hardy, ob. 1486, and at the west end are traces of a fine Norman doorway in addition to the modern door: the church was restored and a new roof provided in 1890, at a total cost of £2,000: there are 350 sittings. The churchyard was enlarged and the additional ground consecrated in 1897: the coping of the wall is largely composed of coffin shaped slabs, one of which exhibits a demi-effigy within a trefoil sunk panel.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1678.