page_title: Church of St Andrew, Biggleswade
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Church of St Andrew, Biggleswade / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The baptismal font at St Andrew's Church in Biggleswade
context_page_description: St Andrew's Church is the Anglican parish church for the town of Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, England. The church is Grade II* listed and comes under the Diocese of St Albans. The church is noted for its monumental brass of John Rudying of 1481 featuring the Figure of Death.
context_section_description: St Andrew's church is first mentioned in a grant of the manor of Biggleswade to Alexander I, the Bishop of Lincoln in 1132 to help endow Lincoln Cathedral. In about 1163 Bishop Robert de Chesney made the church a Royal Peculiar. On 18 November 1200 a miracle occurred in St Andrew's Church when Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, died in London and his body rested at Biggleswade on the way to Lincoln.   A woman with a broken arm touched his body and it is reported that she was healed and the wax tapers in the procession stayed alight. St Hugh was canonised in 1220. However, none of the present building dates back to that period with the oldest extant part today being from about 1300. Most of the church is from the Perpendicular Period with the chancel believed to have been rebuilt or refurbished between 1467 and 1481 by Archdeacon John Rudying (d. 1481).
  The medieval tower collapsed in the early 1700s and was rebuilt in 1720 and fitted with a ring of five bells cast by Thomas Russell of Wootton in 1721. The church underwent a major restoration in 1870 when the roofs and stonework were repaired, an organ chamber was added and corbels were fitted to carry the wall-posts for the nave roof.
  A stone reredos designed by the London architect R J Withers was added in 1877 with decoration by the famous mosaicist company of Antonio Salviati in 1881. Between 1885 and 1888 the church architect William Butterfield made additional improvements to St Andrew's which included reroofing the chancel and the addition of a new vestry. The chancel and organ chamber were damaged by a fire in November 1953 and were restored between 1953 and 1955 which included adding an organ gallery at the church's West end.
caption: The baptismal font
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