St Andrew

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St Andrew’s, Bonby

In the entry for Bonby in the Domesday Book of 1086 there is no mention of a church or religious institution. However sometime in the 1100s a small religious cell was established belonging to the Priory of St. Fromond in Normandy. Its existence was confirmed by Pope Alexander III on the 8th March 1179 during the reign of Henry II.

In 1404 it was transformed to the Carthusian Priory and Convent of Beauvale, Nottingham.

In the early 1500s there was some suppression of churches but Diocesan Visitations were reported in 1517, 1531 and in 1558, by which time the church was well repaired and kept decently.

Following the Commonwealth and subsequent restoration of the Monarch by the early 1700s the church was in need of repair. The steeple had fallen down and the roof leaked. Rebuilding was done, and two new bells were added to the one in the belfry in the 1720s.

One hundred years later the church once again was in need of repair. The loft at the west end was unsafe and the building very dilapidated.

The south porch was removed and the door bricked up.

The loft was removed and the stairs moved to the south side of the entrance, the belfry floor was repaired and a store cupboard on the north side of the new vestibule was made.

Some box pews were removed.

The font was removed from the chancel to the west end of the nave.

Two small lancet windows in the west wall were bricked up as was the loft doorway.

The vestry was built on the north side of the chancel and choir stalls were installed and by 1894 the church was very much as it is today.

Early in the 1900s a boiler house was built next to the vestry for a central heating system, coke fired.

In the late 1940s electricity was installed and a few years later mains water was piped to the building.

Recently in the tower, the beams and frames for the bells have been repaired, the floor of the ringing chamber has been repaired and a more modern central heating system has been installed.

During the last 800-900 years the building has undergone many changes reflected in the outward appearance of the building.

In general appearance the church is early English in style.

The roof and tower are pantiled.

The walls are a mixture of white limestone, red brick and rendered plaster.

There was once an aisle or colonnade on the north side of the building as the remains of the arches can be seen outlined in the stonework on the outside wall.

There is a bricked doorway on the north side of the nave.

The two windows in the nave on the north wall are 14th- 15th century.

On the south wall there is the bricked up Norman doorway in the nave and the window in the nave is a pointed Early English and in the chancel is 13th-14th century in style.

There are also two small lancet windows in the nave Norman in style.

The large east window is early English style.

The west doorway is plain Norman with sandstone verticals.

Internally the 3 pillars supporting the 3 arches on the north side are plainly visible as is half an arch in the north east corner of the nave running north to south.

There is a wooden screen separating the nave from the chancel.

The building is well maintained and cared for.

The graveyard is kept mowed neat and tidy, and contains the village War Memorial. The Lynch Gate was erected in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

Seating for 100 people is pine pews on a wooden floor with a central aisle of hexagonal quarry tiles.

Large restoration work was done in the mid-1800s as can be seen on the plans of the church held in Lambeth Palace Library Church Plans on line 2001

Church Lane, Bonby, North Lincolnshire
Bonby
DN20 0PU

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