Situated in this charming village of thatch-roofed stone cottages, St. Mary and St. Andrew has a 14^th c. W tower and 13^th c. nave and arcades; the side aisles and chancel were rebuilt during a major restoration in 1860 by Henry Parsons of London; S porch rebuilt in 1887 and upper part of W tower restored in 1903. Reset in the W wall of the S aisle above the vestry door is a Romanesque tympanum.

The manor of Ridlington belonged to Queen Edith in 1066. Under William I it was one of three manors which formed the wapentake of Martinsley and Domesday Book records two priests and three churches on this church sokeland. In the 13^th c. the advowson of the church belonged to Thurstan de Montfort. In 1296 part of Ridlington was appurtenant to the church at Uppingham and in 1336 the church is referred to as the chapelry of Uppingham.

The tympanum appears to be the only remains of an earlier 12^th c. church at this site. An 1839 drawing of the church exterior clearly shows this tympanum broken in two pieces – the lower piece used as a lintel above the S door in the original chancel and the curved, upper half of the tympanum inset in the chancel wall just to the E of that door (Dickinson, 93). The current horizontal plaster joint running across the width of the tympanum corresponds to the fragmented parts seen in this 1839 drawing. In 1860, the chancel was in such a state of deterioration it was deemed unsafe and Parsons completely rebuilt it; likely it was at this time the tympanum was removed from the old chancel wall, made whole again and reset in its current location above the vestry door at the W end of the nave S aisle.

Keyser suggests that meaning of the confronting griffin and lion symbolize the eternal struggle between good and evil, with eternity symbolized by the spoked-wheel below the lion. Similar spoked wheels are found on the 12^th c. tympanum to either side of the head of the titular saint at St. Nicholas, South Ferriby in Lincolnshire. Both Keyser and the VCH mention the “I0” above the nose of the lion, but interpret them as the Latin letters for the beginning of “John” with no further elucidation. Neither makes mention of the mark above the griffin nor that above the eye of the lion. Taken together, they appear to be the numbers “9, 10, 11” and are probably a much later addition to the piece.