A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



During part of the i6th and 17th centuries 

 the family of Wildbore, who held land in various 

 other villages of the soke of Peterborough, were 

 specially connected with Glinton.' They appear 

 to have been very interested in bells and bell- 

 ringing. This entry occurs in the churchwardens' 

 accounts for 1659 • 'Disbursed then for the use 

 of the inhabitants of the Towne of Glinton, by 

 John Wildbore of the said towne, the sum of three- 

 score and three pounds to Mr. Norris of Stanforde 

 for the Bells,' and a member of the same family, 

 Matthew Wildbore, has made his name immortal in 

 Peterborough by leaving £^^ to the vicar in order 

 that ' one peal or more ' should be rung on the 

 anniversary of his death.' 



The church of St. Benedict ' at 



jIDVOIVSON Glinton was originally a chapel of 



ease to Peakirk. Glinton was made a 



separate ecclesiastical parish by order in Council dated 



7 January, 1865. 



Glinton church has a chancel with 

 CHURCH north chapel, nave with aisles and south 

 porch, and west tower and spire. 



In the I 2th century it had a chancel and a nave 

 with a south aisle (perhaps also a north aisle) of much 

 the same dimensions as at present. Towards the end 

 of the century a chapel was added on the north of the 

 chancel, and in the 13th century a north aisle, prob- 

 ably as wide as the chapel, was in existence. A south 

 porch was also built during this century. In the 

 14th century the chancel, north chapel, and both aisles 

 of the nave were remodelled and probably to a great 

 extent rebuilt, and in the 15th century the west 

 tower and spire were added, and at a later date in the 

 same century the nave arcades were rebuilt, with a 

 clearstory over. The doorway of the south aisle is of 

 this date, and as there are to be seen to the east of the 

 present south porch the traces of the position of a 

 former porch, it may be that at this time an older 

 south doorway was destroyed and the present one 

 built further to the west, while the porch was taken 

 down and rebuilt to suit the new doorway. 



The chancel, 20 ft. by 14 ft. inside, has a three- 

 light east window, with modern 14th-century tracery, 

 replacing a 15th-century window. In the north wall 

 is a late 12th-century arch with half round responds 

 and foliate capitals, leading to the north chapel, the 

 arch of two orders having been reworked in the 14th 

 century. In the south wall is a 14th-century window 

 of two trefoiled ogee lights with a quatrefoll in the 

 head. Its sill is carried down to serve as sedilia, and 

 at its east angle is a large channelled piscina drain 

 projecting from the wall. To the west is a second 

 window, of two trefoiled lights, with a quatrefoil in 

 the head, also of the 14th century, but earlier than 

 the other. 



The chancel arch has half-round responds and a 

 plain pointed arch ; the bases and lower parts of the 

 responds are of the 12th century, but the upper parts 

 and arch have been rebuilt in the 15 th.' 



The north chapel, 20 ft. by 1 2 ft. 6 in., seems to 



have been rebuilt and extended eastward in the 141!! 

 century. It has a 15th-century east window of three 

 trefoiled lights with tracery in the head, the sill cut 

 down on the inside to form a recess behind an altar, 

 and there is a bracket to the south.' In the south 

 wall is a fine 14th-century piscina, with tracery in a 

 gabled head. In the north wall is a two-light 14th- 

 century window, with modern tracery, and on the 

 west the chapel opens to the north aisle by a pointed 

 arch of the full width, carried on i jth-century conical 

 corbels. Above the arch, on the west side, may be 

 seen the weathering of a former roof, older than the 

 present north arcade. 



The nave is of three bays, with north and south 

 arcades and clearstory of the 15th century, the pillars 

 being octagonal with embattled capitals and arches 

 of two chamfered orders. The clearstory has three 

 windows a side, set over the arches of the arcade, 

 each of three cinquefoiled lights under a four-centred 

 head, and between the windows are stone corbels be- 

 longing to a former roof." The north aisle has a 

 single window on the north side of two lights with 

 modern tracery, and a plain north door, probably of 

 the first half of the 14th century, flanked by two 

 small buttresses which seem to have been designed to 

 take the timbers of a wooden pentise over the door. 

 In the west wall of the aisle is a small round-headed 

 window of which only the head is ancient. In the 

 south aisle the east window is of two uncusped lights, 

 of the first half of the 14th century ; on the north 

 and south of it are plain image-brackets, and in the 

 south wall a contemporary piscina with a moulded 

 arch. In the same wall is a two-light 14th-century 

 window with restored tracery, and in the west wall 

 a small round-headed light of the 1 2th century 

 apparently in position, as the rubble walling in which 

 it is set differs considerably from the rest of the 

 masonry in the aisle. The 15th-century doorway of 

 two orders has a four-centred head with continuous 

 chamfers, and above it a niche with a splayed sill. 

 The south porch has an outer arch of 13th-century 

 work with half-round shafts and capitals and a line 

 of dogtooth on the outer face. 



The west tower is of the 15th century, of three 

 stages, 9 ft. 9 in. square inside, with a vice in the 

 north-west angle. The tower arch is of two orders 

 with a hollow chamfer and wave moulding, octagonal 

 responds, and embattled capitals, and the west win- 

 dow of the ground stage is of two cinquefoiled lights, 

 with a square-headed window of two trefoiled lights 

 above it in the second stage. In the north wall of this 

 stage is a small light, and in the south wall a 

 clock face. The four belfry windows are alike, 

 of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the 

 head. The parapet is embattled, and from within 

 it springs a very high and steep octagonal stone spire 

 with two tiers of gables and crocketed spirelights, the 

 upper part having a marked entasis. The roof of the 

 chancel is of high pitch, covered with Collyweston 

 slates, all others being low pitched and leaded. All 

 parts of the church have embattled parapets, and the 



' Lay Subs. R. J;]S, Wi P-^-C Woot- 

 ton, 366. 



2 Perhaps the efforts of this family had 

 something to do with the local saying in 

 connexion with the bells of this region ; 

 * Helpston cracked pippins and North- 

 borough cracked pans, Glinton fine organs 

 and Peakirk tin pans.' 



'See will of Agnes Strcte(i526) in 

 Northampton Probate Office, Bk. C, fol. 

 132. Also will of John Harbie, Bk. C, 

 fol. 132. 



' The wall here is very thin, only i ft. 

 9 in. and it is possible that it may belong 

 to an earlier state of the church than any 

 other part of the building. 



494 



* A modern doorway has been cut 

 through the south end of the cast 

 wall. 



• The weathering of a steep-pitched 

 roof, older than the existing arcades 

 and clearstory, is to be seen on the 

 tower. 



