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| St. Andrew's, 2006 | Later the same day with sun on the west end | |
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| Organ Pipes | Norman Font |
St. Andrew's lies just south of the village of Great Cubley and makes a suitable starting point for a ten mile walk to Boylestone and Church Broughton. The church was closed when I called but it has a number of interesting features. There was a church here at the time of the Domesday Survey. The current edifice has some Norman remains such as the font and the round arches of the nave. John Leonard remarks that some herringbone masonry in the north wall of the nave could be Saxon. The columns supporting the chancel arch are Norman but the arch itself probably 13th century. The east window of the chancel is late 14th century, and was restored in 1872. The tower is in the Perpendicular style. There are alabaster monuments to two Sir Nicholas Montgomerys, one who died in 1435 and the other in 1494. The former effigy shows a night in plate armour with a collar of roses, a helmet under his head and his feet on a dog. The effigy of 1494 formerly had a brass plate with an engraving of Sir Nicholas and his wife, Joan Haddon. Only the front panel of the tomb remains showing sculpted figures. (In 1435, King Henry VI was on the throne. In 1485, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and became Henry VII, reigning until 1509.)
The chancel is Early English in style with five lancet windows. Two of the windows have 14th century glass including one showing St. Catherine. The church was restored in 1872 by the architect St. Aubyn.
The Montgomery family had a hall near the church and ten of their shields are shown on the outside of the tower. Dr. Samuel Johnson's father was born in Cubley and became a bookseller in Lichfield. On my second visit, 16 years after the first, the church was open allowing the photographs of the interior.
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| St. Andrew's, 2006 | Later the same day with sun on the west end | |
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| Organ Pipes | Norman Font |
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| Nave, Screen and Chancel |
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| Remains of the tomb of Sir Nicholas Montgomery of 1494 | Tomb of Sir Nicholas Montgomery of 1435 |
Sources:
Derbyshire Parish Churches from the eighth to eighteenth centuries, by John Leonard, Breedon Books, Derby, 1993, ISBN 1-873626-36-3.
The King's England, Derbyshire, by Arthur Mee, first published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1937, 6th impression February 1951.
The Buildings of England, Derbyshire by Nikolaus Pevsner, revised by Elilzabeth Williamson, first published by Penguin in 1953, Yale University Press edition, 2002.
A single sheet of A4 framed in the church with a summary of the main features of the church.
Strict 