A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



stone and partly palid.' ' The keepership of the park 

 was granted in l 5 I 7 to David Cecil, sergeant-at-arms, 

 and Richard Cecil, page-of-the-chamber, in survivor- 

 ship.' In 1592 Elizabeth granted Cliffe Park 

 with all herbage, pannage, and other appurtenances, 

 to Thomas Compton and others as the assigns of 

 Robert earl of Essex, at a rent of 53/. \d} Lord 

 Burghley must either have bought the park from the 

 earl, or received a new grant of it from the queen 

 after his disgrace, for among Burghley's possessions at 

 his death in 1 598 was Clift'e Park, lately belonging to 

 Robert earl of Essex.' The Marquis of Exeter 

 now owns the park. Lord Burghley is said to 

 have disparked it,' but it was still to a certain 

 extent separate from the ordinary lands of the manor 

 in the 17th century, when Dr. Michael Hudson, 

 vicar of King's Cliffe, who has become famous by his 

 heroic death at Woodcroft Castle in 1648, appeared 

 in a suit concerning the tithes of the park of Cliffe.^ 



There was a mill rendering twelve pence at King's 

 Cliffe in 1086 ;' in the reign of Henry VI there 

 were two mills appurtenant to the manor, a water- 

 mill and acorn-mill." In the 17th century there were 

 two corn-mills which were in 1650 under one roof.' 

 These mills were often leased separately from the rest 

 of the manor.'" The present corn-mill of the village 

 is on the Willow brook, just south of Hall yard. 

 There is also a fine windmill. 



The advowson of the church be- 

 ADVOWSON longed to the priory of Merton, in 

 Surrey, having been given by William 

 Gifford, bishop of Winchester, temp. Henry I, to 

 Bernard the scribe, a benefactor of that house, to 

 which it subsequently paid a pension of 20/." It was 

 granted in 155 I to Edward Lord Clinton," who sold 

 it immediately to Sir Walter Mildmay," from whom 

 it descended to his grand-daughter and heiress, Mary, 

 wife of Sir Francis Fane, afterwards Earl of Westmor- 

 land, whose descendants are now patrons. 



The church of All Saints " stands on 



CHURCH the south side of the village, the ground 



sloping down to the east and south from 



the churchyard, which lies chiefly on the south and 



west of the church. 



The building is cruciform, with a central tower, 

 north and south transepts, chancel 30 ft. by 17 ft., its 

 axis being north of that of the tower, and nave 

 54 ft. 6 in. long by 18 ft. wide, with a north aisle 

 1 2 ft. wide, a south aisle 1 1 ft. 6 in. wide, and north 

 and south porches. 



The tower is the oldest part of the building, and 

 dates from about 1 100. It is the only remaining 

 part of a church which had a tower between nave and 

 chancel, without transepts, the north and south walls 

 of the tower being external. If any alterations were 

 made to this building before c. 1220, they have left 

 no trace, but about that time a belfry stage and spire 

 were added to the tower, and its east and west arches 

 rebuilt and widened. The chancel may have been 

 rebuilt at the same time, with its centre-line, like that 



of the east tower arch, somewhat to the north ot that 

 of the tower. The nave was probably lengthened, if 

 not rebuilt, as the lower part of the west wall contains 

 work of this date. The north transept seems to have 

 been built c. 1260, but the south transept has no 

 features of so early a date. In the 14th century the 

 nave arcades were built or rebuilt, with the west 

 gable and window. The aisles and south transept 

 appear to have been brought to their present form in 

 the 15th century, and their earlier history is not to 

 be deduced from any existing evidence, though there 

 must of course have been aisles contemporary with, or 

 earlier than, the 14th-century nave arcades. In the 

 latter half of the 15 th century the chancel was re- 

 built. It has an east window of five trcfoilcd lights, 

 with tracery in the head, and on either side of the 

 window is a cinquefoiled niche for an im.ige, that on 

 the north side being the larger, as being intended to 

 contain the image of the patron saints of the church.'* 



In the north wall of the chancel is a window of 

 three cinquefoiled lights with tracery under a straight- 

 lined four-centred head, and in the south wall are 

 three similar windows. There is a plain north door- 

 way, and in the north-west angle of the chancel is a 

 squint from the north transept with clustered re- 

 sponds and moulded capitals, and bases of late 

 13th-century style. Between the first and second 

 windows on the south side is a recess with a four- 

 centred head, serving for sedilia, and to the east of it 

 a trefoiled piscina of 14th-century date, and a small 

 recess near it. 



The central tower measures 1 7 ft. from north to south 

 inside the walls and 1 5 ft. 8 in. from east to west. The 

 west wall is 3 ft. 4 in. thick, the others 3 ft. The east 

 and west tower arches are of two chamfered orders, 

 the west arch being the higher, with half-round 

 shafts in the responds, while those of the east arch 

 are half-octagonal. In the north and south walls 

 are narrower 15th-century arches, opening to the 

 transepts, with half-round shafts and half-octagonal 

 moulded capitals and bases. On the outer face of 

 the north wall the original plinth remains, showing 

 it to have been external, and high in the wall is a wea- 

 thered string, just below the line of the transept roof. 

 There is no masonry staircase to the tower, and it& 

 upper stages are reached by an iron circular stair " 

 in the south-west corner. The top stage of the 

 original tower was lighted on each side by two 

 round-arched openings, divided by a central shaft, 

 with capitals of early detail, under a round head. 

 Of these the eastern arch has been built up, but 

 those on the north and south are still open, and that 

 on the west, though blocked on the inside, remains 

 perfect. It differs from the rest in having two cen- 

 tral shafts in the thickness of the wall, that which is 

 seen from the nave having early volutes at the angles. 

 Below this opening is a string on the west face of the 

 wall. The 13th-century upper stage of the tower 

 has in each face wide two-light openings divided by 

 a shaft, under a gabled head, the tympanum of the 



1 Leland, Itin. (ed. Hearne), i, 25. It 

 was thus enclosed in the reign of Edw. III. 

 (L T.R. Foreign Accts. 47 Edw. III,No.7). 



2 L. md P. Hen. yin, ii, pt. ii, 967. 

 * Pat. 34 Eliz. pt. iv, m. 14. 



■* Chan. Inq. p.m. (ser. 2), cclvii, 91. 



' Bridges, ii, 433. 



« Exch. Dep. Mich. 17 Chas. I, No. 26. 



" F. C. H. Norlhants, i, 307a. 



9 Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Hen. VI, No. 42. 



9 Exch. Dep. Mich. 14 Jas. I, No. 18 ; 

 Aug. Off. Pari. Surv. No. 38. 



1" Doc. at Burghley House. 



" Cott. Cleo. C. VII, Nos. 146 and 281. 



" Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. vii. 



" Close, ; Edw. VI, pt. v, No. 14. 



"John Hcggs (1510) desires to be 

 buried in the churchyard of All Saints in 

 Kingscliffe. See Northants Will Bk.A.46, 

 also Bk. £. 100. 



582 



** An image of All Saints sounds an 

 impossibility ; but there is good evidence 

 that such images existed. See the ac- 

 counts of AUhallows Staining, London^ 

 for 1 506, * an image of Alhalowen,' 

 Povah, Annals of St. Olave^s, Hart Street^ 

 and Allhallo'ws Staining, 



ifi The rood-loft stair was in the tower, 

 and led up to a doorway in the west wall, 

 on the south of the west arch. 



