St Andrew's Church, Burnham-on-Sea

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St. Andrew's Church, Burnham-on-Sea.

St. Andrew's Church is the Anglican parish church of Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, England. Of medieval origins, the church is a grade I listed building, well known for its leaning tower.

1 History of the building
- 1.1 The leaning tower
- 1.2 The sculptures
2 References
3 External links

[edit] History of the building

There has been a church on this site since the late 11th century. Between 1305 and 1314 the original church was either replaced or enhanced; the parts of that church that still stand are the south transept, the south door arch, the holy water stoop and the consecration cross.

[edit] The leaning tower

The leaning tower, 78ft high, gets a lot of attention from tourists. Apparently if a plumb line is dropped from the north side of the tower it would fall 3 feet away from the building. This major leaning is believed to be caused by the poor foundations.

[edit] The sculptures

A number of marble carvings designed by Sir Christopher Wren, for the private chapel in the Palace of Westminster can be now seen in the church.^[1] These sculptures formed part of an altar commissioned by James II in 1685 and were sculpted by Grinling Gibbons and his assistant Arnold Quellin, a Belgian artist of Antwerp. After having originally been taken to Westminster Abbey in 1706, where they were placed behind the High Altar, they were moved to Burnham in 1820 when the Bishop of Rochester (also then vicar of Burnham-on-Sea), acquired them.

What one sees at Burnham is only part of the whole design; the main panels are behind the altar with the remainder of the fragments displayed at various places in the main body of the church. They first occupied the whole of the east wall behind the altar.

[edit] References

^ Church of St. Andrew. Images of England. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.

The proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society - Vol. LXXXI - 1935 - pp. 127-132 by AW Vivian-Neal M.C., F.S.A. gives an account of the history behind this statuary.