A Brief History of St Andrew's Church

St Andrew's has a long history; in 708 AD the land at Hampton was recorded in the endowment of the Abbey at Evesham.

Aethelred II ("The Unready") seized the land, but Leofric, Earl of Coventry (and husband of the renowned Lady Godiva), restored it in 1043 or 4. At the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII appropriated the patronage, and in December 1546 he granted it to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford who remain our patrons to this day.

The plan of St Andrew's is unique among churches in the Vale of Evesham, and suggests an original Norman foundation. The present building dates as a whole from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The porch was added a little later. The walls are composed of Blue Lias, with dressed Cotswold Oolite for the quoins, mouldings, and the external facing of the external nave walls. The roof is of local Cotswold stone tiles.

The masonry is original, except for the re-facing of the East wall in 1900, and the addition in 1904, of the North Aisle, now used as the vestry and organ space.The two diagonal buttresses at the East end, and the crosses on the East and West gables are modern.

THE PORCH has a 4 centred arch under a square head with carving on the pierced spandrels.The Holy water stoup was recently restored.

THE FONT is a perfectly plain bucket-shaped block of Yellow Oolite on a square base of 2 steps. Its simplicity and solidity suggest it may be of the 12th Century.

THE TOWER is reached by a newel staircase, via an ancient door of uncertain date.

THE CHANCEL was rebuilt by Abbot Brockhampton 1282-1316, and has a modern parquet floor with 4 blue stone slabs let into it (now covered by the carpet) on which are recorded the names of John (1720) and Anne Clarke (1727) and of John and Mary Martin (1713).

THE SANCTUARY has a blue mosaic floor and an Irish marble step, both dating from 1904.