HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



chapel; clerestoried nave of four bays, 47 ft. 9 in. by 

 14 ft. 6 in.; north and south aisles, 12 ft. 

 CHURCH 3 in. wide; south porch, and west tower, 

 1 2 ft. 6 in. square, surmounted by a spire: 

 the width across nave and aisles is 43 ft. 2 in., and the 

 length of the chapel, which is a continuation of the 

 north aisle, is 18 ft. 6 in. All these measurements are 

 internal. 



The church was rebuilt in its present form in the 

 14th century, and though much restored retains most 

 of its original features. The chancel, the nave arcades, 

 and the lower part of the tower are c. 1320, but the 

 aisles do not appear to have been completed till rather 

 later {c. 1340-50), though no doubt set out when the 

 arcades were rebuilt. The extension of the north aisle 

 into a chapel took place about the same time, or perhaps 

 a little later, after the completion of the chancel, a north 



E.^STON 

 M.^UDIT 



The chancel is open to the chapel at its west end by 

 a pointed arch of rivo orders, the outer with a recessed 

 chamfer carried down the jambs, the inner wave- 

 moulded order dying out. The early-i4th-century 

 chancel arch is of two sunk chamfered orders, with 

 hood-mould towards the nave, the inner order springing 

 from half-round responds with moulded capitals and 

 bases. 



The responds of the nave arcades agree with those 

 of the chancel arch, and the piers consist of four 

 clustered shafts, quatrefoil in plan, with moulded capi- 

 tals and bases. The arches are of two orders, the inner 

 wave-moulded, the outer with a sunk quarter-round. 

 There are three square-headed clerestory windows of 

 two trefoiled lights on each side. The aisle windows 

 also are all square-headed and of two lights, except at 

 the east end where they are of three, but are very much 



C.1320 

 ^c.l 340-50 



E^ 15111 CL.NTURY 



Scale of Feet 

 10 5 o 10 20 3o 



Plan of Easton Maudit Church 



window of which it blocked, and the clerestory cannot 

 be much later than c. 1350. The tower was not com- 

 pleted until after the addition of the clerestory into 

 which it is bonded at the third stage; the bell-chamber, 

 or upper story, appears to be as late as c. 1 380-1400. 

 The spire was added in the 15th century, and a west 

 doorway inserted in the tower. In 1832 the spire was 

 partly rebuilt, and there was an extensive restoration 

 of the fabric in 1859-60. 



The building throughout is faced with rubble, and, 

 with the exception of the tower, all the walls are 

 plastered internally. The chancel has a modern high- 

 pitched stone-slated roof without parapets, and the 

 porch is also covered with stone slates. Elsewhere the 

 roofs are leaded' and of low pitch behind plain parapets. 



The chancel has diagonal buttresses of two stages and 

 an east window of three trefoiled lights with moulded 

 jambs and modern reticulated tracery. In the south 

 wall, at the east end, is a pointed window of two cinque- 

 foiled lights and quatrefoil in the head, and at the west 

 end a tall square-headed window, the sill of which is 

 about 3 ft. above the chamfered plinth and forms a seat 

 inside: the head is modern. The piscina and triple 

 sedilia, which form a single composition of four tre- 

 foiled arches, are wholly restored, as is also the priest's 

 doorway. The blocked window in the north wall is 

 a single-light pointed opening with inner trefoiled ogee 

 head, and east of it is a rectangular double aumbry. 



* They were re- 



restored; the tracery is c. 1340. In the usual position 

 at the east end of the south aisle is a cinquefoiled piscina 

 with fluted bowl. The north aisle has a good moulded 

 17th-century lean-to roof: that of the south aisle, which 

 is apparently contemporary, but plainer, has been re- 

 stored. The roofs of the chancel and nave are modern. 



Externally the aisles have diagonal angle buttresses 

 and a string at sill level all round, but within there is 

 a string only in the south aisle. The 14th-century south 

 doorway retains its ancient oak door, with excellent 

 ironwork: the north doorway is of two continuous re- 

 cessed chamfered orders and hood-mould. The porch, 

 which is of equal date with the aisle, has a plain-coped 

 gable and square-headed windows of two lights, but is 

 without buttresses; the aisle string is continued round 

 it. Its outer doorway is of two chamfered orders, the 

 inner resting on rough corbels, and in the gable is a 

 much-weathered later tablet, which may have been 

 a sundial. 



The chapel has a square-headed east window of three 

 lights and one of two lights on the north side, similar 

 to the others in the aisles, together with a narrow door- 

 way of two continuous hollow-chamfered orders. In 

 order to resist the thrust of the chancel arch after the 

 removal of the original end wall of the aisle, a reversed 

 strainer arch, of a type similar to those at Fincdon and 

 Rushden, was inserted at the west end of the chapel, 

 probably early in the 15th century, with a buttress 



leaded in 1926. 



15 



