A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



was again in the hands of the crown in 1 6 1 6, when 

 it was granted to Sir Charles Montague.' It was 

 later acquired by the Quarles family, who sold it 

 in 1693 to St. John's College, Cambridge, now 

 the patrons.* In 1639 John Donne, son of the 

 celebrated Doctor Donne, was presented to the living, 

 but never came into residence.' 



Ufford church stands on high ground 



CHURCH south-west of the village. The site is 



nearly level, but the ground falls quickly 



on the south and to a less extent on the west and 



east. The churchyard lies on the north and west. 



The church has a chancel 40 ft. by zo ft., which 

 formerly had a small chapel on the north side ; nave 

 48 ft. by 20 ft., with aisles 1 1 ft. wide, south porch, 

 and west tower 12 ft. 4 in. square, all measurements 

 being internal. The tower is faced with wrought 

 stone, and the rest of the building has walls of stone 

 rubble with ashlar dressings. 



No work now in position is older than the end of 

 the 13th century, though pieces of early 12th-century 

 detail are used up in the jamb of one of the north 

 windows of the chancel and at the west end of the 

 north aisle. 



The chancel is the oldest existing part of the 

 building, and is of the same width as the nave. It 

 has doubtless been built round an earlier chancel, the 

 nave which existed at the time, having been rebuilt 

 about 1330 on its old lines, at least as regards its 

 breadth. The aisles are of the same date as the nave, 

 and there is nothing to show whether the older nave 

 had aisles or not. The west tower is a 15th-century 

 addition, and the north aisle seems to have been pro- 

 longed westward to enclose an entrance to a vice in 

 its north-east angle. The stairs to the roodloft, at 

 both the eastern angles of the nave, are an addition 

 to the design, though little later in date than the 

 nave. 



The east wall of the chancel has been rebuilt, and 

 in it are two modern windows with geometrical 

 tracery. In the north wall is a window of two un- 

 cusped lights with a lozenge in the head, and further 

 west a second window of two trefoiled lights with 

 segmental head and pierced trefoiled spandrels. Near 

 the north-west angle of the chancel is a small lancet 

 low side-window. 



The destruction of the chapel on the north side of 

 the chancel may have taken place at the setting-up 

 of Lady Carre's tomb in 1621, and the doorway of 

 the chapel, the piscina of which remains on the outer 

 face of the chancel wall, stood where the tomb now 

 stands, between the first and second windows. 



The east window in the south wall is like the 

 corresponding window on the north, and the second 

 has two uncusped ogee lights under a segmental head 

 with pierced spandrels, that in the middle being tre- 

 foiled. West of it is a trefoiled low side-window 

 I 5 in. wide at the glass line, divided by a transom, the 

 top part of the window being 2 ft. 9 in. high and 

 the lower 2 ft. 10 in.; the sill is 3 ft. above ground 

 level outside, and the part below the transom is now 

 blocked with masonr)'. 



All windows have mask dripstones, and the internal 

 label of the north low side-window ends in dog- 

 tooth ornament. A plain segmental-headed priest's 

 door is below the second window on the south side of 



' Pat. 13 Jas. pt. XT, m. 9. 



» Deed at St. Joha'j College, Cambridge. 



• Diet. Nat. Biog. 



the chancel, and to the east of it are three sedilia, 

 with moulded pointed arches, marble shafts, and 

 moulded capitals and bases, of late 13th-century 

 date, and closely resembling the sedilia at Paston ; 

 east of them is a cinquefoiled 14th-century piscina. 

 The chancel arch belongs to the date of the nave, 

 and is of two orders, with a chamfer and hollow 

 chamfer, half-round responds, and moulded capitals 

 and bases. 



The nave is of three bays, of excellent 14th-century 

 detail, with clustered piers of four half-round shafts 

 and octagonal moulded capitals. The arches are of 

 two orders, with double ogee and wave mouldings, 

 and there is no clearstory. At both eastern angles of 

 the nave are roodloft stairs, entered from the aisles ; 

 the upper doorways which opened to the loft having 

 details of the same character as the nave, though both 

 stairs appear to be insertions. That on the north is 

 continued upward to give access to the leads, ending 

 in an embattled octagonal turret. 



The north aisle has no east window ; in the north 

 wall is a square-headed window of three trefoiled 

 lights, and to the west of it a second window of two 

 trefoiled lights with leaf tracery under a pointed head. 

 The north doorway is plain and blocked, and in the 

 west wall is a window like that just described. All 

 these windows are of the first half of the 14th century, 

 the last being reset when the aisle was extended west- 

 wards. 



The east window of the south aisle is of three tre- 

 foiled lights with flowing tracery ; it is thrown out of 

 centre with the aisle by the projection of the rood stair, 

 and is probably contemporary with it. The two south 

 windows and the west window in this aisle are like 

 the second and west windows in the north aisle. The 

 south doorway is of two chamfered orders, and the 

 south porch, which is of the same date as the aisle, has 

 an outer arch of the same detail as the nave arcades, 

 and stone benches on the east and west. On the 

 east jamb of the outer arch is a well-preserved 

 mediaeval sun-dial and traces of two others. 



The west tower, faced with beautifully wrought 

 ashlar masonry, is of early 15th-century date, with a 

 good plinth, and at its angles shallow clasping but- 

 tresses, which are common in the neighbourhood in 

 work of this time. It has an embattled parapet with 

 gargoyles at the angles, and four belfry windows ot 

 two trefoiled lights and a quatrefoil in the head, with 

 embattled transoms and cinquefoiled heads below 

 them. In the second stage are square-headed cinque- 

 foiled lights on north, south, and west, and in the 

 ground stage a west window of three trefoiled lights 

 with octofoils in the head, and below the window a 

 sharply-pointed west doorway with continuous mould- 

 ings under an embattled string. 



The roofs of nave and aisles are of flat pitch and 

 simple detail, probably ancient, but much repaired. 

 In the north aisle is a record, in black letter, of a 

 repair in 1 701. Externally they are leaded, while 

 the chancel roof, which is of good modern design and 

 steep pitch, is covered with Collyweston slates, as is 

 the south porch. 



The only old woodwork in the church beside the 

 font cover is in the north aisle, where are some 15th- 

 century bench ends with poppyheads. 



The font has a tall octagonal panelled bowl, stem 

 and base ; on the bowl blank shields alternate with 

 window tracery in the panels, except that on the east 

 face is a saltire, in reference to the dedication of the 



536 



