A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the octagonal 14th century pier on the south side, 

 dividing the two original western bays, remains. It 

 differs from the earlier eastern pier, and from the 

 evidence of its masonry appears to have been height- 

 ened or repaired at some subsequent date." The 

 capital is moulded with an ogee and a swelled chamfer,* 

 and the base is of ogee section projecting from a high 

 plinth of two plain chamfers. 



The north arcade is all of one build and is contem- 

 porary with the additions on the south side, but its 

 octagonal piers are lower and the arches do not reach 

 a corresponding height. Like those opposite, they 

 are of two chamfered orders and the hoods are con- 

 nected by horizontal mouldings. In its present form 

 the arcade is as rebuilt in 1616, with high chamfered 

 plinths to the piers, but the mouldings of the capitals 

 suggest a conservative reconstruction or copy of the 

 old work. 



After the completion of the nave aisles the tran- 

 septs' seem to have been taken in hand and rebuilt 

 in their present form as eastward extensions of the 

 aisles, engaging the tower. The spaces thus formed 

 are divided from the aisles and chancel chapels by 

 pointed arches, and on the south side the outer wall 

 is a continuation of that of the aisle and contemporary 

 with it. East of the porch the wall is of 14th century 

 date, but the windows have been renewed and their 

 tracery is modern : they are of two trefoiled Ughts 

 with a quatrefoil in the head. On the north side the 

 aisle wall west of the transept was removed when the 

 outer aisle was built, but the portion immediately 

 north of the tower remains and contains a 14th century 

 window of three trefoiled lights with elongated 

 quatrefoil tracery. 



The south chapel of the chancel appears to have 

 been first planned as an aisle like that opposite and 

 of somewhat similar dimensions, but when the walls 

 reached a certain height and its western arch was 

 pierced in the then existing transept wall fears for 

 the stability of the tower seem to have arisen, and as 

 the nave aisles approached completion a newer and 

 stronger arch was substituted for the earlier one, 

 shghtly to the east of it, affording direct abutment to 

 the tower and itself abutted by a strong buttress on 

 the outside.' At the same time the plan and elevation 

 of the chapel were altered and it became a kind of 

 transept (24 ft. by 20 ft.), with a lofty arch of three 

 chamfered orders' opening to the chancel and occu- 

 pying the whole height of the wall. The chapel roof 

 is at right angles to that of the chancel, with a plain 

 gable at the south end, below which is a large pointed 



window of five cinquefoiled Ughts with vertical tra- 

 cery.^" The chapel is also lighted on the east side by 

 a square-headed window of four trefoiled hghts with 

 quatrefoil tracery. In the usual position in the south 

 wall is a piscina with trefoiled ogee head and fluted 

 bowl, and west of it a plain rectangular aumbry. In 

 the east wall, north of the window, is an image bracket 

 supported by a carved head, and at the west end of 

 the south wall is a blocked low side window with ogee 

 head and hoodmould terminating in a finial.'^ 



Above the roof the tower is of two stages and finishes 

 with a battlemented parapet and angle pinnacles. No 

 portion of a 12th century superstructure remains, but 

 the square turret at the north-east angle and a large 

 portion of the masonry on the east and south sides of 

 the lower stage are old. A large part of the north 

 and almost all the west side fell in 161 3 and at the 

 rebuilding the new work was bonded into the old 

 masonry. In this stage there is a doorway on the 

 east side to the roof, and a window of two trefoiled 

 lights on the north and south.^ The whole of the 

 upper stage belongs to the 17th century rebuilding, 

 and the nave clearstory of two-light four-centred 

 windows was either rebuilt or added. The bell- 

 chamber is lighted by double two-light pointed win- 

 dows on each side, with transoms, cinquefoiled heads 

 to each hght and quatrefoil above, the hoodmoulds 

 of which are joined by strings, and there is also a 

 stringcourse at sill level and another some 5 ft. below, 

 where the walls are slightly gathered in. 



Set in the wall of the north arcade of the nave are 

 three inscriptions*^ on framed panels, recording the 

 17th century reconstruction in these terms : (l) 

 ' Rob. Sibthorpe's care to God's true feare, This 

 downefalne church got helpe to reare 1616. Will. 

 Dawes, mason '; (2) ' Bp., Chanc'""' and Clergie, 

 nobles knights & gent : the countrie parishes. All 

 Sts. North'""' St. Sepulchers gave . . . without 

 breefes'; (3) ' 1616 John Pattison, Humf : Hopkyns, 

 churchward when this buil[ding] began.' 



The octagonal stone font is said to be partly ot 

 15th century date,** but nearly all the carving is 

 modern. 



The oak pulpit belongs probably to the second 

 quarter of the 17th century. It is hexagonal in shape, 

 with carved upper and moulded lower panels. The 

 balustraded stair appears to be an early 18th century 

 addition and the stem is modern. 



There is a brass candelabrum given under the will 

 of Samuel Pennington, who died in 1745. 



There is no ancient glas<,*^ but two chained books 



' Strjcantson, Hist, of Cb. of St. Giles, 

 Norihampt. 121 : ' It »ccmi very likely that 

 the masoni abandoned, on renewing their 

 work, their previous plan of a tall arcade, 

 and built a low arch next the high one 

 already constructed, or, taking a new 

 centre for the western curve of their new 

 arch, dropped that cur\e upon the capital 

 of a lower column and so made their 

 western bay altogether lower in elevation 

 than in their original scheme. The 

 heightening, then, must have taken place 

 in the 17th century, when so much was 

 done to the building ; the pillar would 

 have been continued a few feet higher, 

 and the old capital, which is of the same 

 type of masonry as (he lower part of the 

 column, would have been replaced at the 

 higher level.' The churchwardens' ac- 



counts show that something was done to .t 

 ' piUer ' in the nave in 1628. 



" Probably fifty years later than the 

 carefully grouped and geometrically 

 drawn mouldings of the eastern column 

 and respond' : ibid. 122. 



' No trace of the 12th century transepts 

 remains, and their extent is purely 

 conjectural. 



' Scrjeantson, op. cit. 126. This but- 

 tress covers a portion of an earlier buttress 

 (which took the thnist of the first arch) 

 the bottom of which has been cut away to 

 make room for a doorway in the angle of 

 the chapel and tower aisle. 



• The two inner chamfers are hollowed, 

 and there is a shaft with moulded capital 

 on the jamb face of the innermost 

 order. 



54 



*^ The tracery and mullions of this and 

 the east window are modern. 



" Internally it now shows as an arched 

 recess. The sill is 1 9 in. above the ground 

 outside and the opening is 4 ft. 1 in. by 

 I ft. 8 in. : Assoc. Ar:h. Soc. Reports, 

 xxix, 434. 



"These windows seem to have been 

 reconstructed on the old lines : Serjeant- 

 son, op. cit. 131. 



'* TTwo of these, one above the other, 

 arc over the first pier west of the tower ; 

 the third is above the third pier from 

 the east. 



'* Scrjeantson, op. cit. 161. An old 

 font had, however, been removed in 

 1654 : ibid. 57. 



" William Belcher, of Guilsborough, at 

 the beginning of llie Ijlh century noted 



