Plymouth Minster
Plymouth, Devon
St Andrew's is a wonderful and beautiful building with a fascinating historical story.
When built, we now know it was fairly plain internally. The only decoration in the fabric would have been the corbels at the top of the pillars, carved with fruit and leaves by Hems.
The first two small panels of stained glass were installed next to the original font by the Vicar in 1895 in memory of his wife. It wasn’t until after WWII that any more glazing was added. Along with very serious damage to neighbouring homes in the Plymouth Blitz that caused fatalities, we know the east window of the church was affected. It was replaced after the War in stained glass to commemorate the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of WWII as a War Memorial. Only in 2019 did we discover an old pre-war photograph of the original east window. It had been clear glass in the same fashion of the still original west window.
Military history surrounds the people of this inner city Plymouth parish. It suffered major losses in both WWI and WWII. It is therefore probably not too surprising that the church has separate memorials to both of these conflicts inside the building, naming some 208 of our neighbours who lost their lives in these conflicts.
A fuller history of the building was written in 1976, called 'The Master Builder'. The author, Clifford Trethewey kindly gave permission for it to be made available to download here.