St Andrew and St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church dedicated to Saint Andrew and Saint Mary, in the parish of Easton and the village of Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, England. The church is south from Grantham, and at the western side of the Lincolnshire Vales in South Kesteven.
St Andrew and St Mary's is significant for its association with, and memorials to, the Easton Hall Cholmeley and the Stoke Rochford Hall Turnor families.
The church is in the ecclesiastical parish of Stoke Rochford with Easton, and is part of the Colsterworth Group of Parishes in the Deanery of Loveden and the Diocese of Lincoln. Other churches in the same group are St John the Baptist's, Colsterworth; St James’, Skillington; Holy Cross, Great Ponton; and St Cuthlac's, Little Ponton. St Andrew and St Mary's is within the Stoke Rochford conservation area.
History
St Andrew and St Mary's parish register dates from 1663.
Domesday 1086 settlements associated with the present church and parish included Stoke, North Stoke and Ganthorpe (Ganthrop) in the Winnibriggs, and Easton in the Beltisloe Hundred. At the time the settlements were described with no priest or complete church. However, from physical dating evidence South Stoke church might have an 11th-century origin. By the late 12th century the church of St Andrew at North, and St Mary at South Stoke existed in records. At some point the deserted medieval village of Ganthorpe with its chapel was at the north of what became the Stoke Rochford Estate, the Hall itself sitting further south between the townships of North Stoke at its north, and South Stoke at its south. North Stoke was demolished in 1841–1843 during the rebuilding of the previous 1794 Stoke Rochford Hall and its Estate's further enclosure, redesign and expansion.
Until 13 June 1776 the living for North and South Stoke had been held as a mediety—tithe, glebe, rent and profit income shared equally between the two churches—after which the living and incumbency was combined as one parish, and included the hamlet of Easton to the south, to become the ecclesiastical parish of South Stoke cum Easton, under the patronage of Salisbury Cathedral’s Prebendary of South Grantham. The St Andrew dedication of North Stoke church was added to South Stoke, its church becoming St Andrew and St Mary (sometimes St Mary and St Andrew). Some transferred elements from the North Stoke and Ganthorpe churches are incorporated. The previous mediety parsonage at North Stoke had burnt down in 1697, and an 1824 map of North Stoke did not indicate a church. The possible site of North Stoke St Andrew's was excavated in 1968, which revealed 11th- to 14th-century pottery, with further 16th- to 17th-century and Saxo-Norman pottery nearby. In the early 20th century parts of an 11th-century limestone cross with interlace patterns were found in St Andrew's Church ruins; the remains are now in the churchyard of St Andrew and St Mary's.