PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



HELPSTON 



John Sulgrave paid sherifTs aid to the abbey of Peter- 

 borough as lord of the hundred of Nassaburgh in 

 1396 for land in Helpston, once held by Richard de 

 Mortimer.' About 1440 Thomas Molesworth did 

 homage for two fees in Helpston and Peterborough ; ■ 

 the land in Helpston was probably that called the 

 manor of Woodhall, for ten years later a suit was 

 brought relative to the testamentary dispositions of 

 a Robert Molesworth, whose widow, Elizabeth, was 

 married to Richard Ireton, and who claimed the 

 ' chief messuage called Woodhall ' in Helpston for 

 her life.' In 154 1 John Molesworth possessed the 

 manor,' and it remained with the Molesworth 

 family' until, in 1576, John Molesworth and Mar- 

 garet his wife, and Antony Moleiworth granted it 

 with a mill and three dovecotes to Sir William Fitz- 

 william,' who already held Clapham's manor in 

 Helpston, and it remains in the possession of the 

 Fitzwilliam family at the present day. 



All the land held by the Fitzwilliam family in 

 Helpston was given by the late Earl Fitzwilliam in 

 1857 to his second sur\'iving son, George, who was 

 succeeded by his son, the present possessor, in 1874. 



The church of Helpston, under the 

 JDVOlfSON patronage of St. Botolph,' was pre- 

 sented to by the holders of the m.inor ' 

 until about 1374, when John KnjTet, Rich.ird 

 Tretton,' and others obtained leave to give one acre 

 of land in Helpston and the advowson of the church 

 there to three chaplains of a newly-made chantry in 

 the said church.'" Soon after this the advowson passed 

 into the hands of Christ's College, Cambridge, who 

 are still the lay rectors, but the vicarage in 1893 was 

 united to the rectory of Etton, of which Mr. Fitz- 

 william of Milton is the p.Ttron." 



The church of St. Botolph consists of 

 CHURCH chancel, nave with aisles and south 

 porch, and west tower, and seems to 

 have grown to its present plan from a small 

 aisleless nave and chancel with a west tower. 

 The nave measured about 32 ft. by 14 ft. inside, 

 the line of its east wall being marked by the 

 break in the present north arcade, and its dimensions 

 were very nearly the same as those of the pre-Conquest 

 naves of Wittering and Peakirk in its immediate 

 neighbourhood. The oldest work now to be seen in 

 the west tower, which was rebuilt with the old 

 materials in 1865, belongs to the beginning of the 

 12th century, the d.ite of the tower of Maxey, 

 but its base, uncovered in 1865, is reported to have 

 had long and short work on the north, south, and 

 west sides, and may therefore be of pre-Conquest date. 

 If this is so, the tower was rebuilt about 1 100 to 1 1 10. 

 The south doorvvay of the nave dates from the end 

 of the 1 2th century or perhaps a little later, and 

 appears to be in situ, which goes to show that the 

 nave had aisles and consequently arcades at least as 

 early as this time. The present nave arcades are 

 of the 1 3th century, the south arcade t. 1 220, and the 

 north some 30 years later. About 1280-1300 a 



rebuilding of the chancel w.is begun round and to 

 the east of the old chancel, but not coming as far 

 west as the old chancel arch. On its completion the 

 arch was pulled down, and the north and south walls 

 of the nave continued up to the line of the new 

 chancel arch, being carried on narrow arches resting 

 on corbels in the new wall. The aisle walls were at 

 the same time rebuilt and carried westward to enclose 

 the tower on both sides. About 1330 the west 

 tower was rebuilt, only the ground story of the old 

 work being retained. 



The chancel is 34 ft. long by 18 ft. wide inside, 

 and is built on a scale quite out of proportion to the 

 rest of the church. The walls seem to have been 

 lowered, probably at the date cut on the flat head of 

 one of the south windows, 1 609, but the east gable has 

 been set up again in modem times, and the arched 

 head of the east window replaced. It is of three 

 trefoiled lights with cusped tr.icery belonging to the 

 transition from geometrical to flowing lines, enough 

 of the old work remaining to mark its character." 

 There are three other windows of the same date, one 

 in the north wall and two in the south, each of two 

 tall lights with flat heads and light modern tracery ; 

 they probably had arched heads originally. At the 

 eastern angles and between the south windows arc 

 t.ill buttresses without sets-off, finished at the top with 

 modern flat heads, another evidence in favour of the 

 lowering of the walls. On the north of the chancel 

 was a contemporary vestr)', which is now destroyed, 

 leaving only the marks of its roof, and a blocked 

 doorway which led from the chancel to its south-east 

 end. 



There is a third window on the south side of the 

 chancel, west of the two already noted, of late 15th- 

 century date, with two cinquefoiled lights under a 

 four-centred head, and below it is a blocked low side 

 window retaining its iron grate. Close to it on 

 the east is a small doorw.iy of the date of the chancel. 

 In the south wall is a piscina with two projecting 

 drains under a single trefoiled head, and adjoining it 

 three sedilia with moulded trefoiled arches and 

 clustered shafts of very good detail. Opposite them 

 in the north wall are three recesses with trefoiled 

 heads, nearly as large as the sedilia, their jambs and in 

 two instances their sills being rebated for doors. On 

 either side of the east window are brackets for images. 

 Within recent times there were stone seats along the 

 north and south walls of the chancel, but only their 

 stone ends now remain, shaped above and carved with 

 monsters, after the fashion of that at Sutton. 



The chancel arch is lofty with clustered responds, 

 moulded capitals and bases, and an arch of two cham- 

 fered orders. The nave is 37 ft. long by 14 ft. wide, 

 with north and south aisles 1 1 ft. 3 in. and 10 ft. 9 in. 

 wide respectively, both overlapping the west end of 

 the chancel. 



The north arcade has three bays irregularly spaced, 

 the western arch, which is pointed, being somewhat 

 narrower than that adjoining it, which is round. The 



' Cott. Nero, C. vii, fol. 130. 



' Add. MS. Z5288. 



' Chan. Proc. bdle. 1 3, No. 2. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. (ser. 2), livi, 44 ; 

 Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 16 Eliz. 



* Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 16 Eliz. 

 » Notes of F. Northants, East. 18 Elii. 

 ^ Will of Richard Taylor (i 530), North- 

 ants Wills, Bk. D. fol. 332. Sec also will 



of Clement Stocks (i >;o), Bk. D. fol. 331. 

 Bacon {Liber Regii) gives St. John the 

 Baptist as the invocation of this church. 



' Assize R. No. 1 1 So, m. 5 ./. ; Feet of 

 F. Northants, 23 Edw. Ill, No. 365. 



• Probably feoffees of the Thorpes, 

 who held the manor at this time, as they 

 were on other occasions. (Close 46 

 Edw. Ill, m. 22, 23, 24.) 



497 



•" Inq. a.q.d. lile 38 1, No. 2. 



" ^cctt. anJ Papers, 1897, Ivii, pt. vi, 



p- 97^ 



^^ This window can hardly be earlier 

 than the first decade of the 14th century, 

 and the rebuilding of the chancel must 

 have spread over a considerable time, as 

 the diiferences in detail which it presents 

 are marked, 



63 



