A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



room on the ground floor, but there is no opening 

 into the room on the first floor. The stairs are 

 continued up beyond this room to another on the 

 second floor, and yet further up to the roof. There 

 was a narrow range of buildings, now removed, run- 

 ning northwards from this smaller block ; and remains 

 still exist of a doorway leading into it from the room 

 on the first floor. These mediaeval buildings are 

 attached by a small lobby to the main body of the 

 house, which i? of Elizabethan date, as indicated by 

 two date stones of I 5 7 1 and 1580 respectively, but 

 some of the detail of this part of the house strongly 

 resembles that at the neighbouring house at Ape- 

 thorpe, which was executed in 1623-4. 



At the back of the house is a circular staircase in 

 a circular projection, and adjoining is a small vaulted 

 room, now used as a butler's pantry. The character 

 of this work points to its being of the same date as 

 the smaller of the two mediaeval rooms already 

 described, namely about the end of the 14th century; 

 and it may be presumed that the mediaeval house 

 occupied much the same area as the present structure. 



Most likely the great hall occupies its original site, 

 and the present entrance passage is the modern 

 successor of the ancient ' screens.' Indeed the back 

 doorway of this passage is a widely spl.iyed gothic 

 arch, which may well be the doorway of the original 

 house. At present the house hardly extends east- 

 wards beyond the entrance passage, save for the small 

 ' Justice Room ' ; but it is on this side that the kitchen 

 and servants' oflices must have stood, although all traces 

 of them have now disappeared. The present kitchen is 

 of comparatively modern date. In the 1 8th century 

 the house was panelled throughout and a certain 

 number of structural alterations were made, all with 

 a view to keeping abreast of the times. The work 

 was evidently done by a painstaking man who put 

 a little more than the usual detail into his cornices. 

 Among other alterations of this period the circular 

 staircase behind the hall was raised and newly 

 roofed ; the additional part was not built of stone, 

 but of timber covered with vertical Colly weston slating, 

 a very unusual method of construction. Since that 

 period other alterations have been made from time 

 to time, and the details of the architectural changes 

 have been much obscured, but the house as it stands 

 is a very interesting example of the development of 

 domestic architecture. 



The advowson of the church of 

 jiDVOWSON Southwick was granted by Henry I 

 to the prebend of Nassington, and 

 he also freed it from all secular exactions as a possession 

 of the priory of St. Mary at Huntingdon.' There is 

 no record of any arrangement being made between 

 the prebend and priory, but the latter retained the 

 advowson, which was confirmed to them by Pope 

 Eugenius in 1147,' until the dissolution of the 

 monastery by Henry VIII. After the dissolution of 

 the priory the rectory, church, and the advowson of 

 the vicarage of Southwick were granted by Edward VI 

 to Thomas Reeve and George Cotton.' They sold 

 the advowson to Sir Edward Montague,* in the 

 following year. In the early part of the reign of 

 James I it was in the hands of the Lynne family, 

 and has since followed the descent of the manor. 



The church of our Lady ' consists of 

 CHURCH chancel, nave, and west tower with 

 stone spire. It stands at the east end of 

 the village, with the hall at no great distance to the 

 east. The tower is faced with wrought stone, the rest of 

 the church with dressed rubble. The chancel was 

 rebuilt, and the nave almost entirely so, about 1760, 

 the chancel arch and tower alone retaining their 

 ancient form. The former has a pointed arch of 

 three chamfered orders, with octagonal responds and 

 moulded caps and bases, c. 1230, and is the oldest 

 existing part of the building. The east and south 

 windows of the chancel are of 14th-century style, and 

 were inserted in 1 840, replacing wide round-headed 

 windows of 1 760. There are square-headed door- 

 ways at the north-west and south-west of the chancel, 

 and in the north wall a large round-arched recess 

 containing the monument of George Lynn, 1758, a 

 white marble figure holding an oval medallion with a 

 portrait in low relief. In the south wall opposite 

 this recess is a blocked round-headed arch correspond- 

 ing to it, though not exactly ; its original purpose is 

 not now evident. 



The nave has two windows and a door on the 

 south, and three windows on the north, all in 14th- 

 century style, and dating from 1840. They replace 

 a doorway and windows of 1 760. 



The west tower is of the 14th century, and has an 

 east arch of three orders with the wave moulding, 

 octagonal capitals and fillets on the responds. The 

 tower was designed to h.ive a stone ribbed vault at 

 this stage, but only the wall ribs and corbels now 

 remain. The west window is of 1840, like the rest. 

 In the second stage of the tower are single trefoiled 

 lights on the north, south, and west, and on the east 

 a doorway, formerly opening to the roof space of the 

 old nave. 



In the belfry st.ige are four windows, each of two 

 trefoiled lights with transoms and a quatrefoil in the 

 head. 



The spire is crocketed, with two tiers of spire- 

 lights in the cardinal faces, the lower having cinque- 

 foiled lights with a quatrefoil over, and the upper 

 trefoiled lights. 



In several places on the tower are carved two 

 shields, bearing a bend in an engrailed border 

 (Knyvet), and barry of six in a border with bezants, 

 which may be a variant of the Basset coat. This 

 suggests that the tower was built by John Knyvet, 

 chancellor of England, who died in 1 38 1, and on 

 architectural grounds a date of I 340-50 is likely. 



There is a vice in the south-west angle of the 

 tower, and the north-west angle seems to have failed, 

 and is supported by a pair of heavy buttresses. 



The roofs are plain, and probably date from 1760. 

 That of the nave is of low pitch, leaded, and the 

 chancel roof is covered with Collyweston slates. The 

 pulpit is part of a 'three-decker' of the i8th century, 

 and the altar rails are of about the same date ; the 

 east end of the chancel is covered with 17th-century 

 panelling from the hall. 



There is a small modern octagonal font with carved 

 bowl. 



Indents of two brasses remain in the floor, one 

 having a 14th-century floriated cross, the other two 



' Man. AngI, vi, 1274 ; Cart. Antiq. 

 H, No. 8. ' Cott. Aug. ii, 112. 



» P.it. 6 Edw. VI, pt. V. 



■• Com. Pleas. D. Enr. East. 7 Edw. VI, 

 m. 14, 



° Richard Sin}rth hy will dated 1524 



594 



left his body to be buried in the church- 

 yard of our Lady of Southwick. (North- 

 ampton Probate registty, Bk. B, fol. 1 1 5}. 



