Architectural Features
The chancel arch was rebuilt in the late C13.
The N aisle was added in the mid C14,
the chancel was extended in the C15, when the nave was also reroofed.
The W tower and S porch are early C16 and have been attributed to Girlano Trevise, who worked on Hampton Court for Cardinal Wolsey, although this is by no means certain.
MATERIALS: Pudding stone and flint rubble with some Roman brick.
The tower and S porch are C16 brick.
Parish rooms complex to the N. EXTERIOR The chancel is C12 extended eastwards in the C15, and the Roman brick quoins of the C12 chancel are visible as straight joints in the N and S walls.
TL7404 : Sandon, St. Andrew's Church: Chancel west end showing widespread reuse of Roman bricks
There is a 3-light, C15 E window with cinquefoiled lights and Perpendicular tracery.
the S wall has a window like that on the N and a heavily restored low-side window, with a C14 door with chamfered jambs and a hood mould between them.
The nave S wall has towards the east a C16 square window of two uncusped lights with an identical heavily restored or inserted window above it, giving the impression of a tall window with a transom.
Below it is the remains of a probably C13 lancet.
The N aisle has a 2-light C18 E window, the W window is similar and is set in a C14 opening, and there are two 2-light Perpendicular windows in the N wall.
The moulded N door is C14, and provides access to the parish rooms, which are in diapered brick to co-ordinate with the tower.
The early C16 brick S porch has an elaborate crow-stepped parapet on a corbel table of trefoiled arches.
Above it, the C16 W window has brick tracery, and there are small windows in the second stage and larger, 2-light brick windows in the bell stage.
INTERIOR Very plain, possibly C13, pointed chancel arch with moulded imposts.
C14 with two moulded orders on quatrefoil piers with moulded capitals and bases.
The ceiling of the chancel is C15.
The hammerbeam roof in the nave was rebuilt in the c19, but retains a C15 truss at the E end.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Chancel piscina is C13.
There is also a C12 pillar piscina with a spiral shaft, chevron base and interlace capital, found built into the NW buttress in 1904.
Polygonal font with plain bowl and moulded lower edge, C15 or C16, with a late C17 or c18 cover.
TL7404 : Sandon, St. Andrew's Church: The font
Choir stalls mid C19, incorporating C17 panelling.
Some good glass, including E window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1920.
There are also a few fragments of earlier heraldic glass.
Monuments include brass to Patrick Fearne, parson, d. 1588 and wife, and fragments of another brass of c.1510.
TL7404 : Sandon, St. Andrew's Church: Brass to Patrick Fearne (d. 1588) and his wife 2
There are also a number of wall tablets, including in the chancel Anne, wife of Brian Walton, the rector and author of the Polyglot Bible, d. 1640, and another to Deborah, d. 1647, wife of Samuel Smith, 'pastor of this congregation'.
Several hatchments.
The C15 N door has been hung on the organ loft wall.
Probably C16 door to tower stair,
C17 chancel door.
HISTORY The double-square plan of the nave suggests that the church was built in the C12.
In the early C16, the manor of Sandon was given by Henry VIII to Cardinal Wolsey, and it may have been he who was responsible for building the tower and S porch.
The church was not fully restored until the early C20, by which date post-medieval features were more highly regarded than they were in the C19 Gothic Revival, and consequently the church has retained several C18 windows which might have been removed had the church been restored earlier.
SOURCES Bettley, J and Pevsner, N., Buildings of England: Essex , 677-78 RCHME Essex IV , 132-34 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Andrews, Chelmsford, Essex is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * C12 church with a C14 N aisle and an outstanding early C16 brick W tower and S porch. * Not too heavily restored in the early C20, and so retaining C18 windows. * Excellent fittings, including a superb and very complete C15 pulpit and a C12 pillar piscina.