St Andrew's Church, Billingborough
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| St Andrew's Church, Billingborough | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Andrew, Billingborough | |
 St Andrew's Church, Billingborough | |
| 52°53′39″N 0°20′23″W / 52.894053°N 0.339766°W | |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholic |
| History | |
| Founded | 1251 or 1312 |
| Dedication | St Andrew |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 1968 |
| Architectural type | Perpendicular, Decorated |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 375 |
| Spire height | 150 feet (46 m) |
| Materials | limestone, rubble |
| Administration | |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | Diocese of Lincoln |
| Deanery | Deanery of Lafford |
| Parish | Billingborough |
| Clergy | |
| Priest in charge | Revd Rebecca Rock (2024) |
| Laity | |
| Churchwarden | Geoff Hallam (2013) |
St Andrew's Church is a Grade I listed Anglican parish church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle, in Billingborough, Lincolnshire, England. The church is 7 miles (11 km) south-east from Sleaford, and at the western edge of the Lincolnshire Fenlands.
St Andrew's is in the ecclesiastical parish of Billingborough, and is part of the Billingborough Group of churches in the Deanery of Lafford, and the Diocese of Lincoln.[1]
There was a church at Billingborough in the 11th century, noted in the 1086 Domesday Book.[2] The present St Andrew's dates from 1251 according to one source, and 1312 to another, with later additions to the late 15th century, and with restorations carried out in 1868 and 1891.[3][4][5][6] The church parish register dates from 1561.[7]
In 1717 Henry Penn of Peterborough installed five bells in the church.[3] The bells were re-hung in 1846 within a replaced wooden frame, and a further treble bell was added in 1914 within a new steel frame installed by John Taylor and Co of Loughborough. The nave was re-roofed in 1870 at a cost of £780, and in 1887 new oak benches and a carved pulpit were added, and the aisles repaved. In 1891 the early 14th-century chancel was rebuilt—the previous chancel contained a barn roof brought from Birthorpe—and, in 1892, a window at the east was added to the memory of the late Duke of Clarence, who died 14 January the same year. A reredos was added in 1894, its sides extended in 1913. New stained glass was incorporated into the west window in 1912 by Lieutenant Colonel Albert De Burton, and the church organ was restored in 1929 at a cost of £200.[7][8]
The earliest record of a Church of England rector at Billingborough is of John Jackson, parish priest from 1546 to 1577.[9] The Revd Robert Kelham, buried 4 May 1752, was for 50 years the vicar of Billingborough with Threekingham and Walcot, and village schoolmaster from 1704.[10][11] His son, another Robert Kelham, who died aged 91 in 1808, was an author and antiquarian, and a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn, who wrote an illustrated version of the Domesday Book and a dictionary of Norman language.[12][13] In 1855 the living was a vicarage, valued at £295, with 139 acres (0.6 km2) of glebe land in the gift of Earl Fortescue, held by William Moxon Mann BA, as the incumbent parish priest. The Revd John Kynaston MA, of Christ Church, Oxford became parish priest during 1855 and was still in post by 1885. By the 1930s the living had become the gift of the Crown, with the Revd Samuel Skelhorn LTh, of Durham University, as priest.[7][8][14]
St Andrew's received an English Heritage Grade I listing in 1968,[4] and is part of Billingborough's Heritage at Risk and Conservation Area, designated in 1997.[15][16]
The church became part of the Gilbertine Benefice of Lafford Deanery in 2010, linking St Andrew's to the churches of Aslackby, Dowsby, Horbling and Pointon with Sempringham.[17]
A 2011 fundraising effort was set in place to provide money to "make safe the timber that supports the bells." The cost of repairs to the bell support structure was estimated at £4000, and events were organised to this end. Repair work was also required to stained glass windows following vandalism around the same time.[3]
