A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



and south walls, but traces of square-headed windows 

 remain on the south side, one of which, high in the 

 wall, retains its label. 



The 15th-century font has an octagonal bowl with 

 ehhorate traceried panels and embattled top moulding 

 rtn a panelled stem. 



There are four I5th-centurj' stalls on each side 

 of die quire, but the misericords are missing from 

 three : of the others one has a man holding a shield 

 and four are moulded. 



The pulpit and seating are modern. 



In the floor of the north chapel is a fragment of 

 the brass inscription from the grave of Richard 

 Frysseby, first dean of the college, which reads 

 ' . . . pro anima domini Ricardi . . . qui obiit ...'*" 



The monument of the founder John Pyel (d. 1376) 

 and Joan his wife in the south chapel has already 

 been described :*'' the effigies are mutilated and lie 

 on a tomb with panelled sides. A later mutilated 

 female effigy,*' supposed to represent Elizabeth, first 

 wife of Sir Thomas Cheyney, lies on the floor of the 

 chapel, and against the east wall is a l6th century 

 canopied table tomb at the back of which are indents 

 of two figure brasses, two shields and two inscrip- 

 tions.** In the floor of the chapel are three grave 

 slabs containing indents, one a blue stone with figure 

 of priest, inscription, shield and corner roundels, 

 another with figures of knight and lady and shields 

 at bottom, and the third is a fragment only with 

 canopy work and two shields. 



In the north chapel are wall monuments to Mary, 

 wife of Anthony Leybourne (d. 1690), Henry Wyckley 

 (d. 1723), Simon Taylor (d. 1786), Simon Oliver 

 Taylor (d. 1819) and .Ann his wife (d. 1773). 



The tower is of unusual design and stands about 

 36 ft. west of the nave, having apparently been 

 planned with the college buildings, of which it formed 

 part. It is of four stages, with battlemented parapets 

 and angle turrets and is surmounted by an octagonal 

 lantern of two stages with pointed roof, or short 

 spire of lead. The total height of tower and octagon 

 is 99 ft. The three lower stages of the square tower 

 have rectangular buttresses set back a little from the 

 angles and carried up the bell-chamber stage as flat 

 pilasters. The lower stage has windows on three 

 sides, that on the north being square-headed and on 

 one side set towards the east. The middle stage has 

 openings on the north and west only, while in the 

 third stage there are windows on all four sides with 

 the arms of Pyel in a panel above. The bell-chamber 

 windows consist of two single pointed openings with 

 flowing tracery and hoods, set widely apart and with 

 a trefoiled and gabled niche** between. The two 



external stages of the lantern are divided by a string 

 and in the lower one wide rectangular openings with 

 trefoiled heads, except on the west side, which is blank. 

 On each face of the upper stage is a square-headed and 

 panelled window of three trefoiled lights with quatre- 

 foils in the head. The tower has a vice in the north- 

 east corner giving access to the bell-chamber : the 

 parapet is carried on a corbel-table and has cross 

 loopholes. 



In a description of the tower written by Professor 

 Freeman about 1848,'" it is stated that the buttresses 

 on the south side were then new and ' but feeble 

 imitations of the older work.' A vast buttress had 

 been built against the east face as high as the bell- 

 chamber windows, concealing any openings on that 

 side, the tower having ' previously been in a somewhat 

 dangerous state, which had been increased by opening 

 a small doorway in the south wall.'** At that time 

 the structure leaned ' very perceptibly ' to the south- 

 east. 



Internally the lantern was divided by floors into 

 three stories connected by staircases and passages 

 in the thickness of the walls. The lower and upper- 

 most chambers had fireplaces, and all three*- floors 

 appear to have formed part of the collegiate buildings. 

 The uppermost chamber was lighted from the large 

 panelled ' windows ' of the top stage, the lower parts 

 of which, however, were blocked. The theory that 

 the interior of the lantern had been cased and the 

 fireplaces added some time after its actual building 

 and that the stability of the tower was thus affected,*^ 

 was not borne out by any structural evidence at the 

 time of demolition. No straight joint in the thickness 

 of the wall was found, the outer and inner stones 

 being tailed into the wall and built with lime mortar, 

 but the fiUing-in between was found to be of rubble 

 and mud. Upon removing the recessed stone 

 traceried panelling of the upper windows it was found 

 that on seven sides the spaces between the mullions 

 had been filled in with ironstone without bonding 

 into the mullions or jambs, and in tlie remaining one 

 (facing north) the filling was worked out of the solid 

 stone. The walls of the square tower from the bell- 

 chamber downwards were also constructed with a 

 filling of rubble, and it was found that as the walls got 

 thicker the proportion of rubble filling in the centre 

 increased in ratio, causing the walls to split apart 

 vertically and thus largely to crush and destroy the 

 wrought stone.*^ The failure of the 14th-century 

 structure therefore seems to have been due to an 

 unequal pressure of the lantern on walls of very 

 imperfect construction below, rather than to any 

 additional weight imposed later. As rebuilt, the 



" In Bridgci' time the inicription wai 

 ' on an antique marble in the area of the 

 chancel ' : it it piven a* ' Orate pro 

 anima Ricardi Fryieby primi Decani iitiui 

 Collegii qui obiit A" l><>' MCCCC ..." 

 1'hc indent in which the fragment remaini 

 meaiurei i8 in. by zj in. The dale of 

 death ii left incomplete. 



" y.C.II. Notthanu. i, 409. 



•' Deicribcd ibid. 414. 



** The braiiei had been taVen away 

 before Bridget' time. He dctcribci the 

 monument at * an antique tabernacle 

 tomb of blue marble ' Hut. NoTthann. 

 ii, 23S. The tomb wat formerly under 

 the caiternmoit window on the louth 



tide. It it described in detail in Cbi. 

 Ar^hii. iXorthampt. 125. Three of the sup- 

 porting shafts of the canopy arc of wood, 

 inserted about 1840 when the tomb wat 

 moved to its present position. 



"* One of the old statuci remains. 



•" In Chs. Archd. Korihampt. (1849). 



*' Ibid. 118. It is nowhere stated in 

 what year the great cast buttress had been 

 built. It it ihown on all early drawingt 

 of the tower. During the procett of 

 demolition in 1887 the buttrcit wat found 

 to h.ive been insudiciciilly bonded into 

 the old work, thus ' adding weaknrst 

 rather than helping in the stability of the 

 lower ' : A!\. Arch. Soc. Rtfi. xxvii, 122. 



212 



" The middle chamber was of consider- 

 ably less height than the others. 



*" This theory was set out in a report 

 by Sir Henry Drydcn, dated June 1879, 

 printed in An. Arch. Sec. Reps, xv, 

 p. xxxvi, 



" Report of Mr. W. T.ilbot Brown, 

 F.S.A., architect, in Ass. Arch. Soc. Reps, 

 xxvii, 122. On removal, the strings, quoins, 

 weatherings, doors, steps, windows, trac- 

 ery, etc., were found to be so badly shat- 

 tered or crushed that their conveyance to 

 the ground became a difllcully : their re- 

 use was not possible. All the architectural 

 detail of the rebuilt tower is new. 



