A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



formerly gave access to the spaces over the ceilings of 

 the 12th-century church. The third stage has on 

 each face three subdivided semicircular arches, the 

 middle arch wider than the others, and pierced with 

 two openings. The labels have lozenge ornament, 

 while the main arches are ornamented with billet, and 

 the subordinate arches with zigzag. Above the 

 arcades the ashlar facing is very unevenly cut in a 

 form of tile pattern, and below there is a projecting 

 cornice carried on corbels. The fourth stage is yet 

 more elaborate, with five subdivided round-headed 

 arches on e.ich face, the three in the middle of each 

 side being pierced as belfry windows. The arches 

 have billet and the labels the hatched ornament. 

 Above this stage the stone spire springs from an open 

 trefoiled parapet with unfinished pinnacles at the 

 angles, and is an irregular octagon in plan, the cardinal 

 faces being wider than the others. It has two rows 

 of spirelights, the upper row having blank gablets 

 alternating with the lights, giving a rather heavy 

 effect. 



The north transept is in substance of the original 

 date, and is built with rubble masonry of fairly 

 large stones, with heavy angle quoins, and in places 

 single courses of Roman bricks. In its north wall 

 were two round-headed lights side by side, with 

 billet ornament — but only the jamb of the eastern 

 window now remains, the rest being destroyed by 

 an inserted three-light 15th-century window. In 

 the east wall is a two-light 14th-century window, 

 whose sill has been cut down to form a doorway, 

 now again built up. The west wall of the transept 

 has been pierced, as before noticed, in the 14th 

 century, and the north-west angle filled up with a 

 stone vice, entered from within the transept, and also 

 by a modern doorw.iy from the churchyard. It gives 

 access to a small room in the roof of the transept, 

 lighted by a two-light square-headed window in the 

 gable, and serving as a way to the first floor of the 

 tower, which is used as a ringing chamber. 



The south transept has a fine south window of 

 three uncusped lights, with three plain circles in the 

 head ; and in the west wall a two-light window of 

 the same style with a single circle in the head. On 

 the east is an aisle ' lighted by two two-light east 

 windows with intersecting mullions, and on the south 

 by a two-light window with a circle in the head. 

 On the north a pointed arch opens to the west end 

 of the chancel, blocked as high as the springing by a 

 masonry wall. The aisle i» separated from the 

 transept by a graceful arcade of two bays with 

 slender clustered shafts, moulded capitals, and arches 

 of two chamfered orders, so obtusely pointed as to be 

 almost semi-circular. The transept opens to the 

 south aisle of the nave by a pointed arch of two 

 chamfered orders, with half-round responds and 

 moulded capitals, with nail-head ornament c. 1230. 

 Over this arch is part of the west wall of the 12th- 

 century transept, with the remains of an original 

 window with a heavy roll on the inner order, and a 

 triple line of billet on the outer. A row of 12th- 



century corbels are re-used on the west side of the 

 transept. 



The nave is of three bays, with a south arcade 

 c. 1230, having pointed arches of two chamfered 

 orders, on circular shafts with moulded capitals orna- 

 mented with a line of nailhead. The north arcade, 

 c. 1330, has pointed arches of two chamfered orders, 

 with octagonal shafts and circular moulded capitals.' 

 The clearstory has three 15th-century windows a 

 side, each of three trefoiled lights under a low four- 

 centred head. 



The north wall of the north aisle has towards the 

 east end a square-headed 14th-century window 

 of five trefoiled lights, with pierced trefoiled span- 

 drels, and to the west of it a doorway with continuous 

 quarter-round mouldings. Towards the west end is 

 a window like the other, but of three lights, and in 

 the west wall a modern lancet window. At the east 

 end of this aisle is a stone screen consisting of a blank 

 wall surmounted by a row of pierced quatrefoils, half 

 of them blocked by the vice in the north transept, 

 and above them a row of five niches with crocketed 

 ogee cinquefoiled heads ; the central niche having 

 beneath it an embattled pedestal. In the north wall 

 is a large double locker, with an embattled string 

 over it.' 



The south aisle has two windows in its south 

 wall, both inserted, one of the 14th century with 

 three trefoiled lights and net tracery, the other of 

 the 15th with three cinquefoiled lights under a 

 four-centred head. The west window is a 13th- 

 century lancet. From the line of the original 

 weathering on the transept wall at the east end of the 

 aisle, it is clear that the south wall has been heightened, 

 probably about i 340, when the window of that date 

 was inserted. The south doorway is in part that of 

 the 12th-century nave, with a semi-circular arch of 

 two orders with heavy rolls and a label with billet 

 and nailhead, detached shafts in the jambs, and 

 capitals carved with interlacing foliage, in the same 

 style as those of the tower arches. A third inner 

 order is a 1 3th-century addition, with nailhead on 

 the abacus. The rear arch is of the same date, 

 pointed, of square section, and the string which 

 runs at the level of the window sills is continued 

 round it.* 



The south porch, contemporary with the aisle, had 

 at first low side-walls, and a steep pitched roof, part 

 of the weathering of which may be seen in the wall 

 of the aisle ; but the side-walls were heightened in 

 the 15th century, and the present wooden roof put 

 on. The outer arch is pointed, with detached shafts 

 in the jambs, and rebates for a door. Over it, in 

 the flattened 15th-century gable, is an early 12th- 

 century tympanum, representing Christ with upraised 

 hands, between sun and moon, in a frame of acanthus 

 foliage with a band of interlaced work below. 



The west wall of the original aisleless nave remains, 

 and has heavy Barnack quoins at the south-west angle, 

 perhaps Roman material re-used. The profile of the 

 projecting eaves-course of the first church may be seen 



^ Tfiis aisle was formerly used as a 

 school, with an entrance door on the 

 east between the windows, still to be 

 seen built up in the wall. 



^ The western of tile two octagonal 

 shafts in this arcade is too large for its 

 capital and base. 



' There must have been an important 

 altar here, perhaps connected with the 



gild of our Lady, which existed in Castor. 

 A shrine of St. Kyneburga is said, on no 

 evidence, to have stood in this position. 



< The 12th-century work has been 

 claimed as the outer arch of an original 

 porch, left in position and used as an 

 inner doorway by the 13th-century 

 builders ; but it is more probable that it 

 has been taken from the south wall of the 



Old nave and rebuilt in its present posi- 

 tion. The wall in which it is set is of 

 small rubble like the rest of the 13th- 

 century work in the aisle, and not like 

 the older work in the west end of the 

 nave and the north transept, and the ends 

 of the abaci east and west have been cut 

 away for some reason which does not 

 now appear. 



480 



