"The church of ST. MARY MAGDALENE AND ST. ANDREW consists of chancel 27 ft. by 13 ft. 9 in., clearstoried nave of three bays 37 ft. 9 in. by 13 ft. 9 in., north aisle 6 ft. 6 in. wide, south aisle 9 ft. wide, south porch, and engaged west tower 5 ft. 6 in. square, all these measurements being internal. The width across nave and aisles is 33 ft. 6 in.
An extensive restoration in 1860 left little ancient work remaining save the chancel arch, nave arcades, clearstory and tower, and the history of the building is thus difficult to follow. The chancel arch and the south arcade belong to the first half of the 13th century, and the north arcade is later in the same period. The church may therefore be said to be in the main a 13th-century building, the chancel of which was enlarged or entirely rebuilt in the 14th century, the tower and clearstory being added a century later. During the restoration there was found in the south wall of the chancel a tympanum from a doorway of the earlier 12th-century building, and this is now inside the church over the doorway of the vestry at the west end of the south aisle. The tympanum has a border of guilloche ornament and is rudely sculptured with a lion and griffin in combat, and below them a small eight-spoked wheel within a circle. Above the lion are the letters 'IO."
The restoration of 1860 included the rebuilding of the chancel and aisles, and the erection of new roofs throughout. In 1887 a new porch was erected, and in 1903 the upper part of the tower was rebuilt.
The building is faced with local ironstone, which in the chancel and south aisle is interspersed with freestone bands, and all the windows are modern. The roofs are eaved and covered with stone slates. Internally the walls are plastered.
The chancel is of two bays and has a pointed east window of five lights, which reproduces in some measure the former 14th-century window, but not with entire accuracy, the outer lights, which are much lower than the others, having originally been without tracery. The window has a transom at the height of the springing of the arch, and the three middle lights are trefoiled. The lateral windows, one on the north and two on the south side, have no relation to the windows of the old chancel; like those elsewhere in the church, they are in the style of the 14th century, those in the eastern bay being single lights. No ancient ritual arrangements have been preserved. The 13th-century chancel arch is of two orders, the outer order square, the inner chamfered, springing from large half-round responds with moulded octagonal capitals, and circular bases on octagonal plinths. The rood-loft doorway and the upper part of the stair remain on the north side in a short length of wall at the east end of the arcade.
The south arcade is contemporary with the chancel arch and similar in character, consisting of three pointed arches of two orders on cylindrical pillars and half-round responds. In the north arcade the arches are of two chamfered orders on octagonal pillars and responds, with moulded capitals and plain bell-shaped bases. At the east end of the north aisle, on the north side of the respond wall, is a small trefoil-headed recess, with flat modern sill, which was apparently the piscina of the aisle altar. The south doorway is modern, and the square-headed two-light clearstory windows are very much restored, or inexact copies of the old ones.
The tower stands almost completely within the nave, its west wall alone being in front of the west end of the aisles. It is of three stages, with chamfered plinth and a large four-stage buttress to about half height in the middle of the west wall. The middle stage is very short and the upper stage is slightly recessed, its angles forming broad pilasters, with a band of quatrefoil and other ornament below the plain parapet. The pointed bell-chamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with elongated quatrefoil in the head. A tablet on the west side records the rebuilding of the upper stage in 1903. There is no vice. A bell-ringers' doorway pierced through the west wall is now blocked. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of two chamfered orders dying into the wall, and above the arch the east wall of the tower appears to embody a large portion of the old west wall of the church and contains openings which were originally parts of windows, whose masonry seems to have been adapted to the tower with some freedom.
The font is modern, replacing one which was described in 1860 as 'so much mutilated as to be useless.' The new font has a bowl of triangular shape, with curved sides, supported on marble shafts with moulded capitals and bases.
There was formerly a painting of St. Christopher on the nave wall.
The pulpit and all the fittings are modern.
On the north wall of the chancel is a small alabaster monument with entablature and kneeling figures of Sir James Harington, bt. (d. Feb. 1613–14), and Frances his first wife (d. 1599), daughter and co-heiress of Robert Sapcote of Elton, Hunts. There are also memorials to Edward Chesilden (d. 1688) and other members of the Chesilden family (1725–1815), and to eight men of the parish who fell in the War of 1914–19.
A case containing a bassoon, fiddle, two oboes and a flute, which were in use till 1860, was placed at the west end of the church in 1923. The royal arms of Queen Victoria are in the vestry.
There are four bells, a treble by Taylor of Loughborough having been added in 1911 to a former ring of three, which had been recast by the same founders in 1903.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1571; a paten and flagon of 1709–10 given by Richard Watts; and a fluted paten or small almsdish of 1637–8, originally having two handles, but one is now missing.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms 1581–1713, marriages 1561–1713, burials 1560– 1713; (ii) baptisms and burials 1714–1812, marriages 1714–54; (iii) marriages 1756–1812."
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