View source for St Andrew's Church, Bere Ferrers

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox church
|denomination = [[Church of England]]
|church name = Church of St Andrew
|image = BereFerrersChurch.jpg
|caption = Church of St Andrew, viewed from the north-west
|location = [[Bere Ferrers]]
|website = http://www.bereanglicans.org.uk/
|bull date =
|founded date = 1333
|years built = 1290-1340
|tower quantity = 1
|consecration year = 1333
|dedication = [[Andrew the Apostle]]
|parish = Bere Ferrers
|diocese = [[Diocese of Exeter]]
|province = [[Province of Canterbury]]
|vicar = Revd Nick Law
}}
'''St Andrew's Church''' in [[Bere Ferrers]], [[Devon]], is a [[parish church]] in the [[Church of England]] The church contains the oldest [[stained-glass window]] in Devon (excluding [[Exeter Cathedral]]), dated at 600 years old. The building was probably built at various times between 1290 and 1340; it is recorded that an [[archpresbytery]] was founded here in 1333 and the north [[transept]] appears to be the earliest part of the church while the south aisle is the latest, perhaps 15th century.
==History and architecture==
Features of interest include the [[Norman architecture|Norman]] [[Baptismal font|font]], an unusual altar stone, benches having benchends carved with traceried arches, and an early medieval monument to a knight and lady (probably of the Ferrers family, [[List of Latinised names|Latinised]] as ''Ferrariis'': dative plural). In the church are two other monuments: another recess with effigy of a knight, and a tomb chest of the 1520s, perhaps for [[Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke]] (d. 1521/2).<ref>Pevsner, N. (1952) ''South Devon''. Penguin Books; pp. 47–48</ref> In 1821 the antiquarian draughtsman [[Charles Alfred Stothard]] was killed on falling while making a tracing from a window of the church: his tombstone is in the churchyard.
== Heraldry ==
===Heraldic bench ends===
The church contains late 15th-century oak pews with ornately carved bench ends. Two of these are of especially fine work and interest as they are carved with heraldic escutcheons of the Ferrers and Willoughby families.<ref>Rogers, pp.32–3</ref> Each is at the outer end of the central row of pews closest to the chancel. That on the north side shows a bend charged with four horseshoes (''fer-de-cheval''), being the [[canting arms]] of Ferrers, overlaid by three ship's [[rudder]]s in [[Bend sinister (heraldry)|bend sinister]], the [[Badge (heraldry)|badge]] of the Willoughby family, inherited from Cheyne, as evidenced by an appearance on the earlier Cheyne tomb at [[Edington Priory]] in [[Wiltshire]].
Further rudders are shown in the field, one in base, one in [[Dexter and sinister|sinister]]. That on the south side shows the arms of Willoughby de Broke, quartered as on the tomb of [[Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke]] (d.1502) at [[Callington, Cornwall]], with some details omitted in the wood-carving. The full blazon is: ''Quarterly, 1st grand quarter quarterly, 1st and 4th a cross crosslet double crossed <ref>The cross crosslet double crossed can be seen clearly on the tomb of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke at Callington Church, Cornwall. It was mis-drawn and mis-blazoned as a cross engrailled by Rogers. The Bere Ferrers bench ends, where perhaps the wood does not allow great detail in carving, shows not a cross crosslet but rather a thick plain cross</ref> 2nd and 3rd a cross moline;'' (Willoughby) ''2nd grand quarter, a cross fleurie'' (Latimer) ''3rd grand quarter, 4 fusils in fess each charged with an escallop'' (Cheyne) ''4th grand quarter, a chevron within a bordure engrailled'' (Stafford).
===Heraldic roof-bosses===
The junctions of the oak beams of the ceiling of the south porch are embellished with several oak bosses, some of which display carved armorials of the ancestral families of Willoughby, as shown within the bench-end escutcheons, namely Ferrers, Latimer and Cheyne. Also shown here are the arms of the [[Gorges family]] of [[Knighton, Isle of Wight]] and [[Wraxall, Somerset]],<ref>The senior branch of the Gorges family, distant relatives of the Gorges of Wraxall, married an heiress of the Foliot  family of [[Tamerton Foliot]], almost directly across the River Tavy from Bere Ferrers</ref> from a co-heiress from whom the Cheyneys were descended, blazoned as ''Argent, a gurges azure''. A ''gurges'' is a form of [[canting arms]], being Latin for a whirlpool, depicted as a [[wikt:whorl|whorl]].
==Gallery==
{{Gallery
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| File:BenchEndsBereFerrers.jpg
| alt1=
| Heraldic Oak bench ends, late 15th century, St Andrew's Church, Bere Ferrers. 19th-century drawing by Roscoe Gibbs
| File:BenchEnd1BereFerrers.jpg
| alt2=
| Heraldic bench ends, Bere Ferrers
| File:RoofSouthPorchBereFerrersChurch.jpg
| alt3=
| Roof of south porch, St Andrew's Church. The lantern hangs at the northern end before the church door
}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bere Ferrers, Saint Andrew}}
[[Category:15th-century church buildings in England]]
[[Category:Church of England church buildings in Devon]]
[[Category:Bere Ferrers|Saint Andrew]]