A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



8 ft. west of the chancel into the nave : there is a 

 dwarf wall, but no screen. 



Tlie south arcade of the original nave has three 

 wide pointed arches of two chamfered orders dying 

 into the wall at the west end and at the east resting 

 on a half-octagonal respond. The piers and the 

 respond have moulded capitals and bases, but the 

 western pier is octagonal and the other cylindrical 

 with an octagonal capital. Transverse arches are 

 carried over the aisle from both piers as well as 

 from the compound pier farther east, all similar to 

 those of the arcades. The western arch rests on a 

 moulded corbel in the south wall, but the other two 

 spring from 13th-century piers of four clustered shafts 

 which originally marked the entrance to the lateral 

 chapel but are now built into the later walling ; of 

 these piers the capital of the western is carved with 

 stiff-leaf foliage, but the other is simply moulded, 

 and both have moulded bases.** The extended 

 arcade, on the south side of the old chancel, is of 

 two bays with pointed arches of two hollow chamfers 

 and deep moulded hood, springing from a cylindrical 

 pier** with circular moulded capital and base and from 

 a half-octagonal respond at the east end. At the 

 west the arch dies out. The 13th-century arch across 

 the nave, which was substituted for the original 

 chancel arch, is of two chamfered orders, the inner 

 on half-round responds with moulded capitals and 

 bases, and north of it a transverse arch is carried over 

 the aisle, as on the suuth side.*' 



The south doorway and porch are very beautiful 

 examples of 13th century work, with elaborate 

 mouldings and richly decorated. The inner doorway 

 is of two main orders, the inner forming a trefoiled 

 arch and the outer a moulded round arch with 

 delicate foliage on both planes, and label over ; in 

 the space above formed by the pointed wall-arch is 

 a trefoiled niche containing a modern statue of the 

 Blessed Virgin, with a moulded and cuspcd trefoil on 

 each side. The jambs have three major shafts with 

 moulded capitals and bases, and smaller attached 

 shafts between ; the outer shaft on each side carries 

 the diagonal ribs of the porch vault, which is of simple 

 quadripartite form.** The outer doorway has an 

 acutely pointed arch of three orders elaborately 

 moulded with rolls and hollows, on clustered jamb- 

 shafts with moulded capitals, bases and mid-bands. 

 The hoodmould terminates in masks. 



The chamber over the porch was approached by a 

 stairway in the west wall, which still remains, opening 

 from the sill of a later window in the aisle, but the 

 porch is now finished with a plain parapet. Of the 

 building eastward only the narrow west aisle remains ; 

 it is 5 ft. 8 in. wide, opening to the church by a 

 pointed arch, and was covered by an oblong quadri- 

 partite vault, the springing of which remains in three 

 of the angles. The position of the corresponding 

 cast aisle is marked by the clustered pier and a blocked 

 arch to the aisle, but there has been so much rebuilding 

 and alteration in later times that the original arrange- 



ment must remain in some measure uncertain. The 

 wide middle bay was apparently vaulted and open to 

 the church and probably was used as a chapel. An 

 upper story forming part of the porch chamber may 

 also be assumed, but whether this, too, was used as 

 a chapel or for some other purpose it is impossible 

 to say.*** 



All the windows of the south aisle are 15th-century 

 insertions, those east of the porch being of four 

 cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery and four- 

 centred heads. The end windows are of three lights, 

 that in the west wall and a three-light window west 

 of the porch being without tracery. The west 

 window of the north aisle and one in the north wall 

 are of the early 14th century, of two trefoiled lights, 

 with pointed trefoils and quatrefoil over,^" but all 

 the others are 15th-century insertions of three lights ; 

 that at the east end is now blocked by the organ 

 chamber. The 13th-century north doorway is of 

 two moulded orders, the inner continuous, the outer 

 on jambshafts with moulded capitals and bases. The 

 porch has a modern slated roof without gable coping 

 and an outer doorway of two moulded orders, the 

 inner springing from half-round responds with 

 moulded capitals and bases. It has single trefoiled 

 windows in the side walls, but no benches. 



The east end of the north aisle is used as a morning 

 chapel; in the south wall is a 13th-century piscina 

 and remains of sedilia destroyed in the making of a 

 tomb recess cut through the wall to the west of the 

 new chancel arch c. 1 290. In the north wall, between 

 the windows, there are two plain four-centred 15th- 

 century niches. 



The stairs to the rood loft remain in an almost 

 perfect condition on the south side of the chancel 

 arch, entered from the east end of the aisle by a 

 plain four-centred doorway. The staircase was made 

 in the 15th century and projects into the aisle, from 

 which it was lighted by small windows, now blocked, 

 in the south and west.^* There is a small recess,'^ 

 perhaps for a piscina, in the south wall of the aisle, 

 and farther west a low wall-recess with two-centred 

 moulded segmental arch. North of the east window 

 is a niche with image bracket. 



The clearstory windows are square headed and of 

 two trefoiled lights ; there are two on each side of 

 the extended nave and three of plainer character 

 to the old nave spaced to the bays of the south 

 arcade. 



The tower is of four main stages with coupled 

 buttresses about half its height, so placed as to cut 

 off the square angles of the lower part ; the angles 

 of the upper story thus overhang and arc supported 

 by corbels in the form of heads. The buttresses are 

 of two stages. On the west side in the second stage 

 is a single hooded lancet with wide internal splay, 

 and another smaller one on the north side. The bell- 

 chamber windows are of two plain lancets divided 

 by a square shaft and set within a pointed arch on 

 shafted jambs with cushion capitals ; the tympanum 



** Three ihafti of the wcitcrn and 

 two of the eaitorn pier alone arc 

 viiible. 



*• The pier i> of greater diameter than 

 that oppoiite in the north arcade. 



*' The north aiilc arch ii new. In 

 1849 the reipondi alone remained : 

 Chi. Ar(bd. Norlhampl. 87. 



** The plan of the porch is an oblong 

 measuring 8 ft. 6 in. from west to 

 east by 5 ft. j the vaulting ribs arc 

 chamfered. 



" The tlicor)' that it constituted a 

 dwelling house above a vaulted under- 

 croft used for no special purpose is not 

 convincing and seems only to have been 



260 



advanced to account for an unusual 

 feature. 



■" The new windows in the cast bay of 

 the chancel arc copied from these. 



" 'i'lu-re is no indication of the doorway 

 to tljc loft, but it may be hidden by the 

 plaster. 



" It ii 61 in. wide by 7] in. high. 



