PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



NORTHBOROUGH 



tracery, a moulded segmental head and engaged 

 shafts in the jambs, between two projecting octagonal 

 angle turrets, which rise above the roof level and are 

 finished with conical stone caps with finials. The 

 western turret contains a vice leading up to the roof 

 and down to a vaulted passage running east to a 

 vaulted charnel under the east side of the chapel. 

 This has two bone-shoots on the east and one on the 

 south. A passage runs along the broad sill of the 

 south window from the west to the east turret, which 

 at this level contains a small chamber with a domed 

 and ribbed vault. Beneath the south window are 

 two arched recesses raised above the floor, and for- 

 merly containing low altar tombs intended to carry 

 effigies. 



On the west side of the chapel is an arcade of two 

 bays with clustered shafts and moulded capitals and 

 arches. The west wall of the chapel is immediately 

 to the west of the arcade, and there are evidences in 

 the masonry of a change of plan not easy to follow. 

 In the south bay of the arcade is the west window of 

 the chapel, like those on the east. The second bay 

 of the arcade opens to the south aisle, but its arch is 

 too high for the aisle roof and is blocked in the upper 

 part. Between the middle pillar of the arcade and 

 the east end of the aisle wall is a small space 

 spanned by a narrow arch springing from the pillar, 

 the lower part of the opening being filled with a 

 stone screen. 



The chapel has a cornice of ballflowers at the 

 plate level inside, and externally has an embattled 

 parapet with a similar cornice beneath, and another 

 row of smaller ballflowers on the angle turrets. 



The nave has north and south arcades of three bays 

 with round pillars, moulded capitals and bases, and 

 pointed arches of two chamfered orders. The clear- 

 story has three windows aside of two trefoiled lights 

 under a square head, f. 1330. On the south side 

 there is an external cornice of dog-tooth ornament, 

 old material re-used on the most conspicuous side of 

 the church ; the corresponding cornice on the north 

 side is plain. 



The east window of the north aisle is of three 

 lights under a flat lintel, having lost its arched head 

 and tracery. On either side of it is an image bracket. 

 In the north wall is a two-light window with trefoiled 

 lights and a quatrefoil in the head ; below it is a 

 square locker ; a little to the west are two two-light 

 square-headed windows set close together, and below 

 them a wide round-headed recess with blank 14th- 

 century tracery in the back, not sepulchral, and prob- 

 ably meant to serve as sedilia. The north doorway 

 is plain work of the 13th century, and has had a 

 wooden porch or pentise over it on the outside. The 

 west window, also 13th-century, has two lancets with 

 a quatrefoil over. 



The south aisle is superior in detail and design to 

 the north aisle, and has a double piscina and double 

 sedilia of the 13th century. The piscina is partly 

 blocked by the 14th-century work of the south 

 chapel, and was formerly completely so, being care- 

 fully and intentionally hidden by a slab of stone, and 

 only discovered by accident of late years. The central 

 shaft of the sedilia has been cut away. The 

 windows in the south wall are of two trefoiled lights 

 with a lozenge in the head, and moulded rear arches 

 and labels, the second window from the east h.iving a 

 much wider internal splay than the other. The west 

 window is of the same kind, but has a quatrefoil in 



the head. The south doorway is of two orders with 

 shafts in the jambs ; it has had an external gabled 

 head of steep pitch, projecting 6 in. from the wall 

 face, with scrolls at the springing. Over the arch is 

 a pedestal for a figure. It is now covered by the 

 south porch, c.l^oo, which has an outer archway with 

 a straight-sided Tudor arch. On the jambs of the 

 south doorway are two incised sundials, older of 

 course than the building of the porch. The early 

 west wall of the nave has clasping corner buttresses 

 with angle rolls, and two pilaster buttresses 20 in. 

 wide by 5 in. projection, spaced equally between 

 them. A heavy chamfered string runs along the wall 

 about 7 ft. from the ground level. In the upper part 

 of the wall may be seen the angles of the bell turret 

 before the addition of the clearstory in the 14th 

 century. In the course of some repairs it was found 

 that the pilaster buttresses which run up the face of 

 the wall to the level of the openings in the bell turret 

 were in no way bonded to the rubble wall behind 

 them. The walling here is of large and coarse rubble, 

 and has an early look — it is probably not later than 

 the first quarter of the 12th century. The arrange- 

 ment of the pilaster buttresses may be compared with 

 a later example at Peakirk, and with the west towers 

 of Maxey and Helpstone ; the common origin of 

 all is to be found in the pre-Conquest work at 

 Barnack and Earl's Barton. 



The bell turret has two round-headed openings 

 under a gabled top of late 12th-century date. 



All roofs are flat and leaded, and the parapets are 

 simple, with hollow chamfered cornices below. On 

 the south aisle this cornice is clearly of the date of the 

 walls, with masks and other ornaments at intervals, 

 and the plainer work elsewhere may also be contem- 

 porary. 



The wooden roofs are not ancient, nor are there 

 any ancient wooden fittings in the church, or any 

 glass or wall paintings. 



There is a monument in the north-east angle of 

 the south chapel to James Claypole, 1594, with a 

 heavy round arched canopy on a panelled base, sur- 

 mounted by a cornice and the Claypole arms, gules a 

 chevron between three pellets sable. There has been 

 cresting or the like on the top of the cornice, now 

 destroyed. 



The font is octagonal, with a plain tapering bowl 

 on an octagonal stem. 



The plate consists of a silver cup and cover paten of 

 1776, a pewter flagon, and two pewter plates. 



There are two bells, the treble being mediaeval, 

 inscribed ' Ista Campana facta est in honore sta (sk) 

 Andree,' and the tenor, dated 1 6 1 1 , is probably by 

 Tobie Norris of Stamford. 



The first book of registers for Northborough now 

 existing contains baptisms from 1678 to 1764, 

 marriages from 167 1 to 1750, and burials from 1 67 1 

 to 1764. An earlier book has been lost during the 

 19th century, for in 1 83 1 there was a volume con- 

 taining baptisms from 1586 and burials and marriages 

 from 1538.' It must have been from this book that 

 the entries from 1 6 1 3 to 1 646 were torn out by 

 John Claypole, for which action he was fined j^2 10/.' 

 The present second book contains marri.iges from 

 1 7 5 4 to 1 8 1 2, and the third book baptisms and burials 

 from 1764 to 1 81 2. 



' Par, Reg. Absn-cci, 233. 

 » Bridges, ii, 531. 



511 



