St Andrews, Great Finborough

Richard Phipson's spire at St Andrews, Great Finborough, sometimes nicknamed "Thunderbird One"

St Andrew's Church is situated in the village of Great Finborough, Suffolk, England. It is a Grade II listed building.^[1]

The church that stands today has been there since the Victorian period by Richard Phipson but there has been a place of worship on the site for over 1000 years. In the year 1086 the church as well as Finborough Hall were recorded in the Domesday Book.^[2] In 1558, the first records of births deaths and marriages were recorded at the church. In 1883 a small wall was built around the graveyard of the church costing £5. Eventually the roof was damaged by lightning, and at another date the roof was damaged by gales at a cost of £10,000. The only original part of the church that still stands is the Tudor porch.

There is a lovely view from the west door of the church and the spire nearly reaches 300 ft. Above the entrance there is a small niche with a notable statue of St Andrew, whose identity is clear because of the cross that he carries with him. Inside the church there is a large nave, the side chapel is filled with monuments dedicated to the Wollaston family who played a big part in the Finborough Estate. They owned the Estate for a century and there are monuments dedicated to nearly all the family members. The Pettiward family also played a big role, they took control of the estate after the Wollaston's and owned it until the mid 1930s There are still weekly church services at St Andrew's.^[3]

References

Coordinates: 52°10′59″N 0°56′38″E / 52.18294°N 0.94388°E / 52.18294; 0.94388