A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The chapel dates from the last third of the 14th 

 century, and was dedicated in honour of the Holy 

 Trinity. It was used in the Palm Sunday procession, 

 which made a station in the Galilee, and was decked 

 'in modum castelli ' with white banners bearing red 

 crosses. The whole ceremony is fully described in 

 the Custumal, and must have been exceedingly pic- 

 turesque in such a setting. 



The sequence of building in the church may be 

 summarized thus : — 



First work, 1 1 i 8-55. This really should fall under 

 two heads, 11 18-25, and 1 1 33 onwards, but as 

 the distinction between the two can not be clearly 

 made, it is better to take the two periods together, 

 while noting that the wall arcades in the presbytery 

 have a different section to those in the transept, and 

 that most of the lower part of the apse and eastern arm 

 must belong to the earlier division. By 1 155 the 

 state of the building was this: — Eastern arm: Com- 

 pletely built to its full height. North transept : Eastern 

 aisle with main arcade and ttiforium. North front, 

 lowest range of windows built to a little above the 

 springing at the east end, a little above the sill at the 

 west end. West wall, as high as the string over the 

 wall arcades on the ground stage. East arch of north 

 aisle of nave built. Tower : East piers to full height, 

 and eastern arch probably built. West piers to about 

 half height. South transept : East aisle as high as floor 

 of triforium ; Main arcade and three north bays 

 of triforium ; South wall, windows of lowest stage 

 complete. West wall, windows of lowest stage com- 

 plete, save that the billet moulding ' of two of the 

 labels was not worked ; east arch of south aisle of nave. 

 Nave : The whole length of the south wall of the 

 aisle, as high as the string under the windows, as far as 

 the east side of the bay containing the western procession 

 doorway (St. Paul's door) ; first bay of north aisle, 

 to string over wall-arcade. ff^est towers : Perhaps 

 begun, the abbot's chamber and hall being taken in 

 hand at the same time ; the interval between the 

 old north-west angle of the cloister (built while the 

 Saxon church was standing) and the south wall of the 

 new church was filled by a new outer parlour, the 

 east arch of which still stands. 



Second work, 1155-75. Norti and south tran- 

 septs : Completely built to their full height ; central 

 tower, probably the same ; nave — main span — first 

 bay built to its full height ; second bay to top of tri- 

 forium ; lower parts of next two bays on north and 

 of all bays on south as far as the west towers. Norti 

 aisle : First and second bays complete ; third to fifth 

 built to string below windows. South aisle : Some bays 

 of aisle vault probably built. Western towers : Work 

 continued, especially in south tower. Vestry west of 

 south transept built. 



Third work, 1177-93. Nave: Main arcades and 

 triforium completed for full length of ten bays, the 

 western towers being abandoned ; second to ninth 

 bays of clearstory finished, and prepared for vaulting. 

 North aisle : Built from sixth bay to tenth and vault 

 completed. South aisle : Tenth bay built and vault 

 completed. New western towers: East piers built to 

 springing. North-west transept : east wall up to floor 

 of clearstory passage at south end, some feet lower at 



north end. North wall up to springing of large 

 window at east, sloping down to sill of the same at west. 

 South-west transept : Same stage as north-west. H'est 

 wall : foundations only. 



Fourth work (?i 195-1200). Last h^y oi nave clear- 

 story finished, transepts finished to base of gables. H'est 

 wall 10 passage over doorways. West porch: Side walli 

 from springing of wall arcades at east to a few courses 

 above bases at west ; lower parts of central and two 

 narrow side openings. 



Fifth work (?l 200-38). West front : Completed 

 as it now exists with wide side openings, gables over, and 

 flanking stair towers. Transept gables built and 

 western towers begun. This work may have been 

 ready for consecration some years before 1238. The 

 north-west tower was probably finished soon after- 

 wards. 



Sixth work, 1272-86. Lady chapel built, with 

 St. Thomas's chapel on south. Apses at east ends of 

 presbytery aisles replaced by square ends. Three 

 windows in east aisle of south transept, and one in 

 that of north transept. 



Seventh work, 14th century. Tracery inserted in 

 large windows in gable walls of western transepts, 

 windows in the south aisle of presbytery and in all 

 bays of nave aisles (c. 1300). Windows in all bays 

 of two lower stages and in three middle bays of clear- 

 story of apse (r. 1340). Outer walls of triforium 

 throughout the church' heightened, and new parapets 

 and windows added. Transept gables heightened, 

 and parapets added to clearstory throughout the 

 church. Galilee chapel built c. 1370. 



Eighth work, I 5th century. Two-light tracery in- 

 serted in all remaining 1 2th-century windows. A 

 second opening made in the south aisle of the presby- 

 tery, to an enlargement of the Lady chapel. 



Ninth work, 1496-1528. The New Building at 

 the east end of the church. 



The subsequent history of the building cannot be 

 further dealt with here, beyond making mention of 

 the great works of the rebuilding of the central tower 

 and the repair of the west front in our own time. Of 

 the latter it may be noted that it was not the first, as 

 Bishop Laney, 1660-63, 'gave an hundred pound 

 toward the repairing one of the great Arches of the 

 Church Porch, which was fain down in the late 

 times.' ' 



A good deal of information about the ritual 

 arrangements of the church is to be gathered 

 from the Custumal and the later notices in Gunton's 

 History. 



In the New Building' were three altars, each having 

 a retable with an image of the Passion in 1539, but 

 their dedications are nowhere given. 



Before the New Building was added there must have 

 been altars at the east ends of the aisles of the presby- 

 tery, and it is likely that one of these was the old 

 Lady altar mentioned in the Custumal. The dedica- 

 tion of the other is doubtful, but it seems that there 

 was an altar of the Trinity somewhere near the high 

 altar.' 



The high altar stood on the line of the arch at the 

 west of the apse, having a tall stone screen behind it. 

 This was destroyed in 1643, but a drawing and a 



1 The section is clearly designed for 

 billet moulding, differing in this from the 

 later work. 



* Except where covered by west end of 

 Lady chapel. ' Gunton, op. cit. 33Z. 



' This part of the church was con- 

 verted into a library at some time late in 

 the 17th century. Gunton, op. cit, 335. 



^ Gunton (p. 102) says that there was 

 a Trinity Chapel in the south transept, at 



444 



the north end next the quire. If this 

 statement is correct (and all of his state- 

 ments are not) this chapel must have been 

 set against the back of the quire stalls, 

 under the south arch of the crossing. 



