A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



paling Bernard (of Essex). The east window of the 

 chapel is of three lights, the middle light cinquefoilcd, 

 the others septfoilcd, under a four-centred head. In 

 the south wall is a similar window, having to the 

 west a small four-centred doorw.iy with continuous 

 mouldings, and further west in the same wall are two 

 windows, each of two cinqucfoiled lights, set close 

 together. This chapel has externally a large plinth 

 with a band of quatrefoils and a pierced and embattled 

 parapet with quatrefoiled openings. 



The chancel arch is pointed, of two chamfered 

 orders, with half-round responds and moulded capitals, 

 probably of the date of the re-building of the chancel. 



The nave, 60 ft. 6 in. long by 23 ft. wide, is of 

 three b.ays, the north arcade, c. 1 1 80, having tall 

 and slender round columns, the wall above being 

 only 26 in. thick, and semi-circular arches of two 

 orders, the outer order of the first two arches from the 

 east having a line of zig-zag, while the third arch is 

 plainly moulded. The capitals have square abaci with 

 recessed angles and well-carved transitional foliage. 

 The south arcade, c. 1200, has clustered piers of four 

 large and four small rounded shafts, banded in the 

 midi.llc, with excellent foliage capitals,' and the arches 

 are semi-circular, of two moulded orders. Both 

 arcades are of fine and lofty proportions, but the clear- 

 story, which is a later addition, is insignificant, its three 

 north windows being small trefoils, and those on the 

 south square-headed, of two lights. The north aisle, 

 lo feet wide, is probably of the same date as the 

 north arcade, and contains a blocked north doorw.iy 

 with a pointed arch and a plain chamfered label, 

 which may be original. The windows, three on the 

 north and one on the west, are insertions of the early 

 14th century, and similar to the north and south 

 windows of the chancel. The wall, which is faced 

 with ashlar, has been heightened at the time of their 

 insertion, as is shown by the weather mould at the 

 east end of the aisle. 



The western half of the south aisle, 8 ft. 6 in. wide, 

 is coeval with the south arcade, but the two windows 

 in it are insertions of the same date as those in the 

 north aisle, the wall having been heightened here also 

 about the same time. The eastern half of the aisle 

 has been widened, c, 1325, and contains two two- 

 light windows with segmental heads and interlacing 

 tracery, with trefoiled lights. Above them on the 

 outside is a cornice with ball-flower. 



The south porch has a high-pitched roof of stone 

 slabs, carried somewhat awkwardly on di.igonal ribs 

 springing from cone-shaped corbels in the internal 

 angles. The outer archway is of three moulded 

 orders, pointed, with detached shafts in the jambs and 

 foliate capitals. Internally on either side is a wall- 

 arcade of four pointed arches on detached shafts, with 

 foliate capitals and abaci of square section. The 

 inner archway is semi-circular, of three moulded 

 orders, with shafts and capitals as in the outer arch 

 and square abaci. 



The tower opens to the nave with a massive round- 

 headed arch, 3 feet thick, of one square order, with a 

 rib of square section running round the arch and 

 jambs. In the arch the voussoirs are in single stones 



of the full thickness of the wall, the rib being worked 

 on the same stones. At the springing are capitals 

 with heavy channelled abaci and neckings, the inter- 

 mediate space being worked with coarse horizontal 

 grooves, which set forward on the line of the rib and 

 arc continued across it. The tower is about 19 feet 

 square inside at the ground level, with walls 3 ft. i in. 

 to 3 ft. 8 in. thick at the ground level, and about a 

 foot less at the second stage.' The two lower stages, 

 built of large uncoursed rubble masonry, belong to 

 the original 1 1 th-century work, the top or belfry 

 stage being a 13th-century addition, and the form 

 of the original termination is not to be deduced from 

 what remains. 



The ground stage is lighted by three windows, high 

 in the walls, on the north, south and west respec- 

 tively. The north and south windows have round 

 he.ads, but that of the west window is triangular. 

 Externally all three are set in projecting stone frames, 

 that on the south being square-headed, with carvings 

 of birds in the spandrels. Below it is a round- 

 headed doorway without reveals or splay, with a 

 rib- work frame and heavy arch of one square order, 

 with square imposts at the springing. Beneath the 

 west window, inside the tower, is a recess 3 ft. 4 in. 

 wide by I ft. 3 in. deep, with a rough seat and a 

 triangular head, the head and jambs being formed 

 with narrow stone slabs 4 inches thick.' 



When the ribbed vault with a central bellway was 

 added in the 13th century large masonry piers were 

 inserted in the north-east, south-east, and north-west 

 internal angles of this stage, and the south-west corner 

 was filled up with a stone vice leading to the floor 

 over the vault. Above the vault it may be noticed 

 that a good deal of ancient plastering remains, the 

 vice being built against it. The second stage of the 

 tower was originally divided into two or three 

 stories, but the floors have gone. The top of the 

 vault is 7 ft. 5 in. below the level of the princip.il 

 upper floor, which was lighted by six round-heaJtd 

 windows, two in each of the north, south, and west 

 sides. Only those on the north remain open, and 

 have plastered and splayed heads, jambs and sills, the 

 window being set in a stone frame rebated to take a 

 wooden shutter. There is a blocked opening in the 

 south-east angle just below the level of these windows. 

 Over the east window on the south side part of a 

 cross-shaft with interlacing patterns is built into the 

 wall. On the east side is a square-headed doorway 

 with long and short quoins in the jambs, now opening 

 on to the roof of the nave, but formerly into the 

 interior of a roof of steeper pitch, the mark of which 

 may be seen on the tower wall. 



The stage above this was lighted by four narrow 

 windows with triangular heads, one in each wall, filled 

 in with slabs of pierced stonework of varying design, 

 those in the west and south walls being now blocked. 

 The exterior of the tower is divided into two st.iges 

 by string-courses, the walls setting back at each stage. 

 The wall surfaces are divided vertically by pilaster 

 strips which average 10 inches wide, with a projection 

 of 6 inches. There are three in each stage on the 

 west and north, and in the upper stage on the south 



* The third capital from the east is 

 plain, without foliage. 



^ The east wall is thinner than the 

 other three, and may be in part the west 

 wall of an older nave incorporated in the 



tower, but there is no other evidence in 

 support of the idea. 



^ For an account of the remains of 

 seats, with stone risers and wooden tops, 



470 



set against the walls of the ground stnge 

 of the tower, and older than the 13th- 

 century piers in the angles, see Journ. 

 An. Aicbit. Soc. 1895, p. 143, 



