St Andrew's Church, Billingborough

St Andrew’s Church stands at the western edge of the Lincolnshire Fens, seven miles south-east of Sleaford. Built of ashlar-faced limestone and rubble, it mixes Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles. A tall octagonal spire rises 150 feet above a 14th-century tower with corner buttresses and four crocketed pinnacles. The nave carries an embattled parapet and eight clerestory windows on each side, filled with close-set tracery. A south porch of about 1312 shelters a 14th-century iron-bound door, and the churchyard holds a Grade I listed headstone to the Kelham family. The church’s bells were first hung in 1717 by Henry Penn, later extended in 1914 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. The chancel was rebuilt in 1891 after a barn roof was removed, and a new east window honours the Duke of Clarence who died in 1892. Stained glass includes work by Lieutenant Colonel Albert De Burton in 1912 and fragments of medieval glass depicting a haloed figure. Inside, 375 seats face arcades of quatrefoil piers built in the early 1300s. Visitors find a spacious nave with oak benches added in 1887 and a carved pulpit of the same date. The chancel holds piscinas and monuments to local clergy and benefactors, including Robert Kelham, schoolmaster and antiquarian. A 1929 restored organ and a 19th-century reredos complete the furnishings, while outside the tower’s clock faces and gargoyles mark the passing hours.