A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The children of Wansford attend the schools at either 

 rhornhaugh or Stibbington. 



The station of Wansford on the London and North 

 Western Railway, that of Wansford Road on the 

 Great Northern, and Wansford Junction, where the 

 two railways meet, are all out of the parish and some 

 distance from the village. The parish was enclosed 

 in 1807. The population in 1901 numbered 67. 



There was no separate manor in Wans- 

 MJNOR ford ; most of the land was parcel of the 

 manors of Thornhaugh and Sibberton 

 in Northamptonshire, and Stibbington in Hunting- 

 donshire. Wansford is mentioned with Thorn- 

 haugh in the spurious charter of Wulfhcre to Peter- 

 borough in 664.' It is always named as part of the 

 St. Medard fee, and passed with it into the hands of 

 the Russells, whose representative, the Duke of Bed- 

 ford, sold it in 1904 to Earl Fitzwilliam. 



Richard Mareschal was one of the most important 

 tenants in the 13th century.' 



Part of one-sixth of a fee was held in Wansford in 

 the 13th century by John de Folkisworth of Nicholas 

 de Bassingbume, and he of the king.' This land 

 continued in the same family until the i6th century 

 as an appurtenance of the manor of Stibbington,* and 

 probably came into the hands of the duke of Bedford 

 with that manor. The monastery of Thorney also 

 had a small amount of land in Wansford held of the 

 manor of Water Newton." 



The church of our Lady at Wansford 

 CHURCH is a chapelry to Thornhaugh. It con- 

 sists of chancel with north vestry and 

 organ chamber, nave with north aisle and south porch, 

 and west tower. 



The west wall of the nave, and possibly parts of 

 the south w.all, belong to a small pre-Conquest church 

 which h.ad an aisleless nave measuring about 30 ft. by 

 1 5 ft. 6 in. internally : of its chancel there are no 

 traces. There is no evidence of alteration till the 

 13 th century, when the north aisle was added, and 

 the tower built against the west end of the nave— 

 the original gable being preserved and the east wall 

 of the tower built upon it. A new south doorway 

 was built at the same time. The south wall of the 

 nave has gone over considerably, and the western 

 half seems to have been taken down and rebuilt, and 

 the south porch, dated 1663, has been built to act 

 as a buttress. The chancel fell or was destroyed at 

 some time of which no record is preserved, and the 

 church stood without one till that now existing was 

 built in 1902, with a vestry and organ chamber. 



The chancel, 26 ft. by 15 ft. 6 in., is in 14th- 

 century style, with a five-light east window with net 

 tracer}', and two two-light windows on the south. 

 The chancel arch is copied from the north arcade. Some 

 old window-heads are worked into the new organ- 

 chamber on the north. The nave has a north arcade 

 of two bays, with wide obtusely pointed arches of 

 two chamfered orders, and clustered responds and 

 pier of four engaged shafts ; the moulded capitals of 

 the responds are octagonal, and that of the pier round, 

 with a line of nail-head. The clearstory has two- 

 light square-headed windows, two on each side — all 

 are modern. The north aisle has no ancient features 

 except a stone bench on the west and north lo| in. 



wide, and 2 ft. 9 in. high, the excessive height being 

 accounted for by the lowering of the floor levels. 



In the south wall of the nave is a 13th-century 

 doorway of three moulded orders, with two detached 

 shafts in each jamb : the outward lean of the wall has 

 dislocated the shafts, and they have been patched 

 up and the capitals roughly recut. At the east angle 

 of this wall is a 15th-century buttress, and a second 

 buttress about in the middle of the length. All the 

 wall to the west of this has apparently been taken 

 down and rebuilt upright, probably in the 17th 

 century. The window west of the porch has a square 

 head with a label, and two lights with triangular 

 heads ; it may be of the date of the rebuilding. In 

 the eastern half of the wall is a square-headed win- 

 dow of three wide lights, made up of various old 

 materials, onemullion having 14th-century mouldings. 

 The south porch has an outer doorway with a 

 round arch and classical detail — over it is a tablet 

 with the date 1663. 



The west wall of the nave opens to the tower 

 with a square-headed doorway, which has in the 

 lower part of its jambs some masonry which may be 

 of pre-Conquest date. Above it is a narrow round- 

 headed window, 3 ft. high by 8 J- in. wide, with a 

 raised fillet worked on its head and jambs, the head 

 being in one stone. At the springing are rough im- 

 post stones. Internally the window has a square 

 head, and jambs and head are both splayed. Around 

 the window are patches of herringbone masonry, and 

 the line of a gable is clearly visible in the wall above 

 it. The wall in which it is set is 2 ft. 4 in. thick — 

 the south wall of the nave being 2 ft. 2 in., while 

 the other three walls of the tower are 3 ft. thick. 

 The north and south walls of the tower are built 

 with a straight joint against the plastered face of the 

 early wall. The window is clearly the west window 

 of the nave of the early church, and is perhaps of 

 the I ith century, though it may be earlier. 



The tower, 8 ft. square inside, is of three stages : 

 its date may be about 1230. The first stage has 

 lancet windows on the south and west, and the second 

 on north, south, and west ; all have labels with mask 

 dripstones. The belfry stage has two-light windows 

 divided by round shafts with moulded capitals and 

 bases under pointed heads, the space above the 

 lights not being pierced. These windows have labels 

 and dripstones as the rest, and the tower is finished 

 with a short stone spire of the 14th century with two 

 tiers of spirelights, the lower of two trefoiled lights, 

 the upper of a single light, also trefoiled. At the base 

 of the spire is a cornice with dogtooth ornament. 



All roofs and woodwork within the church are 

 modern — a western gallery was erected in 1804, but 

 has disappeared. 



The font is a good specimen of the 12th centur)', 

 with a round bowl on a modern round stem. The 

 upper edge of the bowl has a band of carved foliage 

 below a row of billets : below this is an arcade of 

 thirteen round arches with capitals and shafts, in 

 which are a series of five subjects arranged in pairs, the 

 other three arcades being occupied by floral patterns. 

 The subjects are (i) the baptism of Christ ; (2) two 

 figures turning towards each other, each raising one 

 hand, and both holding books ; (3) two men fighting. 



1 Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 22. 

 ' Egerton MS. 2733, fol. 152 ; see also 

 as to this holding Feet of F. Northants, 



13 Edw. I, No. 168 ; Ibid. 23 Edw, I, 

 No. 323 ; Cott. Nerocvii, fol.130; Feet of 

 F. Northants, 15 Edw. I, No. 227 ; and 

 Abbrcv. Orig. R. (Rec. Com.), ii. 62. 



' Ttsta de Newll (Rec. Com.), 25. 



* Lay Subs. R. Jff. 



s Dugdale, Mm. ii, 613. 



