Description

1690/0/10064 BIRCHILLS STREET
22-JAN-07 ST ANDREWS CHURCH

II
Church of 1884-87 by John Edward Knight Cutts. Simple and massive. It is built of brick with some limestone dressings and a plain tile roof.
PLAN: Tall nave and chancel under a single roof; the north and south aisles, and the western lobby entrances and baptistery are gathered under lean-to roofs; vestry at north east end.
EXTERIOR: It is decorated in the Early English style with buttresses to the aisles. There are simple brick finials to the lower corners of each gable end and a stone cross at each apex. A shingle bell-cote housing a single bell sits astride the ridge at the junction between the chancel and nave. The windows are lancet lights with cusped heads; four to the west gable end and three in the east gable end, with a roundel in each apex. Attached to the east gable wall, beneath a canopy, is a Calvary cross of oak and an inscribed commemorative stone base; a memorial to those who died in World War I. The west end has opposing entrances at each corner, under pointed arches with drip mouldings and timber double doors.
The church hall, parish rooms and a boundary wall which form an enclosed courtyard on the north side of the church were added in 1902 and are not considered of special interest.
INTERIOR: The roof to the nave and chancel is scissor-braced to the principal rafters, with alternate wall posts supported on stone corbels at clerestorey, and exposed rafters. Six bays to nave and two to chancel; the dividing point marked by a cluster of three colonettes to either side. Exposed brick arches of each arcade supported on sandstone piers with limestone bases and caps. West gable lancets are coloured glass whilst those in the east gable windows depict scenes of the Annunciation, birth of Christ, the empty tomb and a figure of the risen Christ.
The Lady Chapel, aisles, baptistry and north west porch contain a fine series of stained glass windows, each depicting individual saints, set within blank brick arches that create a solid, three-dimensional element. The High Altar reredos was installed as a First World War memorial. The organ chamber is at east end of south aisle and contains an organ by Walsall firm Nicholson & Lord. There is a stone font with hexagonal body supported on six marble columns; has an early C20 carved timber canopy of the four Archangels, possibly by Dunstan Powell.
HISTORY: The construction of St Andrew's Church was begun in 1884 but completion was delayed due to a lack of funds. It was consecrated on St Andrew's Day, 30th November 1887. Between 1890 and c.1916 fifty stained glass windows, each depicting a saint, were installed and the Lady Chapel was furnished. The stained glass cartoons were installed over a number of years and funded by donations and public subscriptions. They include saints rarely portrayed in English stained glass and are clearly specially commissioned for this church. They have been attributed to John Hardman & Co, one of the country's most important art studios in the mid to late C19. During the early C20 a Calvary cross was erected on the external east wall of the church as a memorial to those who died in the First World War.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: St Andrew's Church was clearly designed and built on a restricted budget in one of the poorer suburbs of C19 Walsall. It is rather a plain structure but its bulk and massing are impressive, creating a soaring internal space. Its lack of architectural decoration is more than compensated for by the significant survival of a remarkably complete collection of stained glass, particularly the depictions of individual saints, attributed to the noted Victorian firm of John Hardman & Co of Birmingham.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Andrew's Church, Walsall at Wikipedia
• St Andrew's Church, Walsall official website
• Wikidata Q17511024

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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