BOROUGH OF HICHAM FERRERS 



vertical tracery. The sills are about 8 ft. above the 

 floor, allowing room beneath for a doorway in each 

 of the end bays on the south side. The easternmost 

 doorway has a continuous moulded four-centred 

 head, but the other is set within a rectangular frame 

 with carved spandrels. Below the west window, 

 which is more elaborate than that at the east, are 

 four small cinqucfoiled openings, l* originally ligiiting 

 a vestibule formed by a screen which may have had a 

 gallery above. In the south wall, about lo ft. from 

 the east end, is a newel stair leading to the rood-loft, 

 the lower and upper doorways of which remain. ^^ 

 The original flat-pitched roof is of three bays with 

 moulded principals, each bay divided into eight com- 

 partments by moulded ribs. There are remains of 

 colour in the eastern bay. Covering 

 the south-west doorway inside is a 

 small oak screen dated 1636. The 

 floor is boarded and the walls 

 plastered. Tlie building was re- 

 stored in 1914-15 and is now used 

 as a choir vestry and practice 

 room. 



The remains of the College 

 buildings, which have long been 

 in a ruinous condition,*' stand in 

 the main street, now called College 

 Street, some little distance north- 

 west of the church. The buildings 

 formed a closed quadrangle of the 

 usual collegiate type, but little 

 remains beyond the front of the 

 gatehouse in the east range facing 

 the street, and a portion of the 

 south range, still roofed, in which L_-""_r_"Z] 

 the chapel was situated; the other 13 151!! CENTURY 

 ranges have disappeared.*'' The 

 buildings were of two stories, faced 

 with rubble, and what remains is 

 of 15th-century date. The south 

 range, which face* on to a narrow 

 lane, is in use as a farm house, but it has been much 

 altered from lime to time and many of its architectural 

 features destroyed.** It has an eaved roof with coped 

 end gables, the original one at the east end forming 

 part of the main elevation of the college towards the 

 street, in the same plane with the gatehouse. In 

 Bridges' time the ruins of the north range were still 

 visible,** and Buck's view (1729) shows the walls 

 standing to a height of some 6 ft. or 7 ft. ;*' it also 

 shows the east front extending its full length and 

 considerable remains of the west range, which appears 

 to have contained the hall.** The quadrangle was 

 about 15 yds. square,*' and was entered from the east 

 through a moulded four-centred archway still stand- 

 ing, with square label and quatrefoiled circles con- 

 taining blank shields in the spandrels. Above the 



arch are three tall canopied niches, now empty, but 

 which probably contained statues of the three patron 

 saints of the college, and a square-lieadcd window of 

 three cinqucfoiled lights with moulded jambs and label. 

 The canopies of the niches break through a string 

 at sill-level, now carried along the whole elevation, 

 but originally stopping at the junction of the east 

 and south ranges. The outer wall of the east range 

 stands its full height and contains also a two-light 

 square-headed window'^" in the upper story, and a 

 single-light window in the ground floor.''* The 

 extent of the existing east wall north of the south 

 range is 36 ft., and the whole length of the clevalioa 

 to College Street 59 ft. The chapel was in the eastern 

 portion of the south range and was probably about 



illj Entrance 



II ?■ ^-'ATEWAy 



IT 



1(3 



EiHl Subsequent 

 □ Modern 



Scale of Feet 

 Plan of Hicham Ferrers College 



46 ft. long, with a width of 17 ft. 6 in., entered from 

 the quadrangle at the north-west through a pointed 

 doorway with square label, which still exists. It was 

 lighted at the east end by a large five-light window 

 now blocked, part of the crockcted hoodmould of 

 which, with its linial, still remains above a recon- 

 structed two-light window afterwards inserted in the 

 gable. Two large heads, or corbels, which flanked 

 the window outside are still in their original positions, 

 as are also two carved image-brackets inside. The 

 window appears to have been about 12 ft. wide and 

 its sill about 7 ft. above the floor, but it had been 

 blocked before Bridges' time and a large fireplace and 

 chimney built in front of it, the chapel having been 

 converted into a kitchen.^* At the time this was 

 done the east end of the south range assumed its 



** These windows, long blocked, have 

 been reopened and glazed, with wooden 

 shutters behind the glass. 



*' The doorways arc four-centred with 

 continuous mouldings. The sill of the 

 upper doorway is 8 ft. above the floor. 



"They were so described by Bridges 

 at the beginning of the fSth century, 

 when the building was an inn with the 

 sign of the Saracen's Head : Hiit. 

 Noribanii. ii, 17S. 



" The south end of the east range, as 



far as the gateway, is shown roofed in 

 Bucli's drawing, 1729. 



" It was restored in 1914, when the 

 west wall and part of the south wall 

 adjoining were rebuilt and the thatched 

 roof replaced by one of Colleyweston 

 slates. The south range originally ex- 

 tended further westward. 



" Op. cit. ii, 178. 



" The doorways stood their full 

 height. 



^* The drawing shows the lower part of 



three large windows high above the ground 

 in the west wall. " Bridges, op. cit. ii, 178. 



'° Buck's drawing shows a corresponding 

 two-light window, now destroyed, north 

 of the entrance. 



■' A modern lintel doorway has been 

 inserted between this window and the 

 entrance. 



" Op. cit. ii, 178. This may have 

 been done in the 17th century. "The top 

 of the chimney was removed from the 

 apex of the gable in 1914. 



265 



