A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



vain for the restoration of Wittering on the plea of 

 Geoffrey's selling and pledging the land, and destroy- 

 ing woods and gardens in violation of his tenure.' 

 By 1347 Geoffrey had been succeeded by his son 

 Hugh, who petitioned for the restoration of his 

 Scottish lands lost during the war, which, however, 

 seem never to have been recovered by the family.' 



In 1396 Wittering was in the hands of Nicholas 

 Ridel,' and in 1428 the same or another Nicholas 

 held it.' This Nicholas had a son Hugh, who pos- 

 sibly did not come into possession of Wittering,' but 

 in 1438 his son Henry, the last of the male line 

 of the Northamptonshire Ridels, was a minor in 

 ward of the abbot of Peterborough.' Henry was 

 married twice. By his first wife Alice he had a 

 daughter Ellen,' his heiress, who married Robert 

 Halley. His second wife, Egidia, was born in Paris, 

 and in 1480 brought a plea of dower against Robert 

 Halley, which Robert combated on the ground that 

 Egidia was not a denizen and could not hold land in 

 England.' Robert died in 1503 leaving as heir his 

 son John.' Ann, daughter and heiress of John, mar- 

 ried first Giles, son of George Kirkham, by whom 

 she had no children, and afterwards John Stidolph, 

 whose son Anthony, a minor, inherited Wittering in 



The manor remained in the Stidolph family until 

 the end of the 17th century, when it was conveyed 

 by Sigismond Stidolph and Margaret his wife through 

 trustees to the Cecils whose representative, the Marquis 

 of Exeter, is now the lord of the manor." 



About 1 290, William de Scaccario and Agnes his 

 wife sold a messuage and land in Wittering to Simon 

 de Ellesworth." This estate, known as the Chequer- 

 stede, perhaps from its first owner, afterwards passed 

 into the possession of Walter Langton, bishop of 

 Coventry and Lichfield, who obtained a grant of 

 free warren in his land of Wittering among other 

 places in 1300," and the next year obtained leave to 

 bestow a messu.-ige and land in Wittering held of 

 Geoffi-ey Ridel on the prior of New Place outside 

 Stamford." In 1 330 William son of Robert del 

 Eschequer brought a suit against Geoffrey Ridel for a 

 messuage and land in Wittering which Hugh Ridel 

 gave to William del Eschequer and Agnes his wife, 

 and which ought to descend to William son of 

 Robert as grandson and heir. Geoffrey denied that 

 he held the said tenement, and William was fined for 

 a false claim." In 1357 Peter son of Geoffrey of 

 Burghley released to Robert Wykes of Stamford a 

 messuage and land called the Chequerstede in Wit- 

 tering.'* There is still a field bearing this name in 

 Wittering, in which are remains which may have 

 been the foundations of a house. 



The advowson of the church has 

 /IDFOIVSON always been in the hands of the 

 lord of the manor. 

 The church of All Saints " is a small 



CHURCH building with chancel and north 



chapel, nave with north aisle and 



south porch, and west tower with a stone spire. It 



is of peculiar interest from the fact that it retains 



all the ' long and short ' angles of the nave and 

 chancel, and, except on the north and west, practically 

 the whole of the walls, of a pre-Conquest church. 



The original walling is of coursed rubble with wide 

 joints, stones of fairly large size being used. It was 

 at first covered with plaster, a vertical rebate being 

 worked on the angle-quoins to stop it, leaving a stone 

 face about 1 2 in. wide to show on either face oi 

 the angle. Some of the ' long ' or vertical stones are 

 as much as 3 ft. 10 in. high, bedded on edge, and the 

 'short' or horizontal stones average 7 in. in thickness. 

 At the base of the walls is a projecting course of stone. 



No original windows or doorways remain, but 

 the chancel arch is of pre-Conquest date, and a fine 

 specimen of a kind of which very few examples have 

 survived. The architectural history of the church is 

 simple. A north aisle was added to the nave about 

 1 140-50, and a north chapel to the chancel about 

 1320. The west tower was built about the same time 

 as the north chapel, and the north aisle was widened 

 in the 15th century, and made of equal projection 

 with the north chapel. The south porch is modern. 



Wittering Church 



ll U ti .< n I 



K) {0 



•* ■ -fa 



, Sca.le of FeeT 



30 



The tower is faced with ashlar, and the rest of the 

 church has rubble walls with ashlar dressings, the 

 stone being from the neighbouring quarries at Bar- 

 nack. The roofs are covered with Colly weston slates. 



The chancel has a 15th-century east window of 

 two cinquefoiled lights, with a quatrefoil in the head, 

 and in the south wall is a 13th-century lancet, with a 

 late 13th-century window to the west of it, having 

 two uncusped lights with a quatrefoiled circle in the 

 head, and an external label with masks. It has been 

 much restored. At the east end of this wall is a 

 locker and a 15th-century bracket. 



On the north of the chancel is a chapel, opening to 

 it with an arch of two chamfered orders springing 

 from moulded corbels with heads below them. The 

 east window of the chapel is modern, of two 

 lights, and in the north wall is a tomb-recess with a 

 segmental arch and moulded label, c. 1320. At the 

 east is a 15th-century arch of poor detail, built at the 

 widening of the north aisle. 



1 Anct. Pet. P.R.O. File 142, No. 7099. 



» Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 190. 



' Cott. Nero, C. vii, fol. 30. 



* Misc. Bks. Exch. K.R. iv, 235. 



» Add. MS. 25288. 



« Ibid. fol. 161. 



7 Sometimes called Elizabeth. 



8 E. Chan. Proc. Bdle. 66, No. 59. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xvii, 17. 

 1° Ibid, xxxiii, 22 ; xliii, 47. 

 " Deeds at Burghley House. 

 " Feet of F. Northants, 24 Edw. I, 

 No. 344. 

 " Chart. R. 28 Edw. I, m. 10, No. 36. 



540 



" Inq. a.q.d. File ixxv, No. 8. 



'* Assize R. No. 633, m. 103. 



" Close R. 30 Edw. Ill, m. 16. 



" John Scrle (1512) desired to be buried 

 in the churchyard of All Hallows in Wit- 

 tering. (Northampton Probate Office, 

 Bk. A. fol. 88.) 



