WILLYBROOK HUNDRED 



EASTON ON THE HILL 



In 1293 a chantry of one chaplain was founded 

 in the church of Easton by Henry Sampson, parson, 

 of that church, to pray for the souls of Queen 

 Eleanor and of the founder and his father and mother.' 

 He endowed it with a toft and land in Easton, but 

 the endowment does not seem to have been sufficient, 

 for in 14.11 the chantry then stated to be in the 

 chapel of St. Mary the \'irgin in the church of 

 Easton was united to the rectorj' by Robert Soukel, 

 rector.* It was served by Thomas Williamson the 

 incumbent, 'Scant meet to serve a cure,' in 1 548. 

 It was then worth j^l 6s. SJ. and was said to have 

 been founded by Richard Sampson, clerk.' The 

 lands belonging to this chantry were granted the next 

 year to William Cecil,' by whose family the manor 

 of Easton was afterwards acquired. 



The church of All Saints ' stands to 

 CHURCH the north of the village, on high ground 

 overlooking the valley of the Welland. 

 Its site has a slight slope to the east, but at a short 

 distance the ground falls quickly on the north, east, 

 and south. The greater part of the churchyard lies 

 on the north side, away from the village, and a large 

 additional piece of ground at the north-west was 

 consecrated in 1892. 



The church consists of chancel with north and 

 south chapels and south vestry, nave with aisles and 

 south porch, and west tower. The tower is faced 

 with ashlar, the rest of the building having rubble 

 walls with ashlar dressings and buttresses. The 

 roofs of the north chapel and south porch are covered 

 with Collyweston slates, all other roofs being of low 

 pitch, leaded, and the chancel has embattled parapets. 



At the beginning of the 13th century the church 

 seems to have consisted of chancel and nave with 

 south aisle, enlarged about 1230 by the addition of 

 the south vestry. About 1330 the north-east angle 

 of the chancel was rebuilt, and the north chapel 

 thrown out : the north arcade of the nave and the 

 north aisle, now rebuilt, may have been of this 

 •date. The west tower was added in the 15 th 

 century, no traces being left to show whether an 

 €arlier tower existed. The south aisle, except the 

 south doorway, was rebuilt in 1786, aud the north 

 arcade of the nave with the clearstory and north 

 aisle in 1 856, the north doorway being taken out and set 

 up as an entrance to the churchyard on the west 

 side. The chancel was repaired in iS^d.*" 



The chancel has a 1 5th-centur}- east window of 

 five cinquefoiled lights with tracer)' under a four- 

 centred head, and a square-headed north window of 

 four trefoiled lights with cusped circles in the head, of 

 ■excellent detail, f. I 340. 



The south wall of the chancel has no window in 

 Its eastern bay, the vestry being built against it, but 

 contains a I4th-centur)' trefoiled piscina.' The west 

 bay of the chancel opens to the north and south 

 chapels with wide arches, that on the north being of 

 the first h.alf of the 14th centurj', of two chamfered 

 •orders, with a moulded capital to its east respond, 

 •while the west capital has lost its original detail. 



Across the opening runs a stone screen of the 14th 

 century, with a solid base and open trefoiled arches 

 above, and a four-centred doorway of later date at 

 the east. At the west end is a cinquefoiled arch 

 inserted to range with the rest. The arch on the 

 south of the chancel is of c. 1230, with half-round 

 responds and moulded capitals, the east capital having 

 a line of nailhead ornament. 



The north chapel has an east window of four lights, 

 the jambs being of the 15 th centur>-, but the tracery 

 poor modern work. South of the window is a plain 

 image-bracket. There is a five-light north window 

 with a square head and trefoiled lights, of c. 1340. 



The south vestry is entered from the church by a 

 small doorway of uncertain date, and contains some 

 very good 13th-century detail in the jambs of a blocked 

 east window with nook-shafts, and on the south in a 

 chamfered wall arch with a label, enclosing a square- 

 headed opening* with angle rolls, below which runs a 

 moulded string to a clustered shaft in the south-west 

 angle. The shaft is partly hidden by a wall dividing 

 the vestr)' from the south chapel, but not carried up 

 to the roof. In the north wall is a small ogee-headed 

 recess 6h in. wide by 19 in. high, and east of the 

 window in the south wall is a very good 13th-century 

 piscina with a trefoiled arch. 



The south wall of the south chapel was rebuilt in 

 1786, and contains a modern four-light window copied 

 from the north window of the chancel. 



The chancel arch is of the 14th century-, with two 

 chamfered orders and half-round responds, the details 

 of the capitals having been destroyed no doubt in the 

 fitting of a rood-loft. On the south side is the rood- 

 stair, entered from the aisle, with an exceedingly steep 

 rise. Over the arch are the royal arms of George I\', 

 dated 1826. The north arcade of the nave, of three 

 bays.with the north aisle, was rebuilt in 1856, the square 

 heads of some I4th-centurj' windows being re-used 

 in the new work. The south arcade, of three bavs, 

 has round pillars with plain octagonal capitals and 

 round arches of two chamfered orders, probably dating 

 from c. 1 200. The only ancient feature of the south 

 aisle is the doorway, coeval with the arcade, with a 

 well-moulded arch and nook-shafts. Over the arch, 

 and cutting into the label, is a 14th-century trefoiled 

 niche. The south porch has stone seats on the east 

 and west, and an outer arch with two hollow- 

 chamfered orders and mask dripstones to the labels. 

 The nave clearstory has windows with two cinque- 

 foiled lights under a four-centred head ; those on the 

 south side being of the 15 th century, and those on the 

 north modern copies of them. 



The west tower is of five stages. It is of early 

 I jth-century date and local type with shallow clasping 

 buttresses at the angles, being an almost exact replica 

 of the tower of St. John's Church at Stamford. The 

 mouldings of the west window on the ground stage 

 are especially to be noted in this connexion, being 

 identical in both churches and having a keeled roll on 

 the outer order characteristic of the 13th rather than 

 the 15th ce Tiury. 



1 Inq. a. q. d. File xx. No. 18. 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Repingdon, Memo. 

 54 (/. For the commemorative inscription 

 -sec below. 



' Chant. Cert. 35, No. 39. 



* Pat. 3 Edw. I, pt. V, m. 11. 



* A parishioner in 1514 desires to be 

 luried in the churchyard of All Hallows 

 of Easton 'upon ye hiU.' (Bk. A, fol. 



1 96, see also will of John Saunders, Bk. 

 D, fol. 76. Wills in Northampton Probate 

 Office). 



* The chief internal measurements arc: 

 chancel 33 ft. by 13 ft. 2 in. ; north chapel 

 17 ft. by 1 8 ft. 2 in. ;nave 51 ft. by 19 ft.; 

 north aisle 9 ft. 4 in. wide, south aisle 

 8 ft. wide, and tower 13 ft. square. 



7 The vestry, which is not later than 

 c. 1230, is built with a straight joint 

 against the chancel, and is clearly an ad- 

 dition, so that the chancel, which shows 

 no traces of I2th-centuiy masonn-, must 

 belong to the early years of the 13th 

 century. 



® A wide four-centred light has been 

 inserted in this opening. 



