HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



HARGRAVE 



The church of ALL SAINTS consists of chancel, 

 27 ft. 3 in. by 1 7 ft. 6 in. ; clerestoried nave of four bays 

 40 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 9 in.; north and south 

 CHURCH aisles, 6 ft. 6 in. wide; north transept, 

 south porch, and west tower, 8 ft. 9 in. 

 square, with broach spire, all these measurements being 

 internal. The transept projects 4 ft. in front of the 

 north aisle, the eastern bay of which it absorbed when 

 added late in the 15th century, and in the angle it 

 forms with the chancel there is a modern vestry. The 

 width across nave and aisles is 34 ft. 



With the exception of the transept the structure, 

 where not rebuilt, belongs to the first half of the 13th 

 century, but new windows were inserted in the aisles 

 and chancel during the 14th and i 5th centuries. The 

 clerestory is part of the original fabric. 



In 1868-9 an extensive restoration was carried out, 

 which involved the taking down and rebuilding of the 

 tower and spire' and the western bay of the nave; 

 the east wall and part of the north wall of the chancel 

 were also rebuilt, several of the "windows renewed, 

 and the old porch replaced by one of different design.* 



The building is faced throughout with rubble, and 

 internally the walls are plastered. The chancel, nave, 

 and porch have modern tiled eaved roofs, but the aisle 

 roofs are covered with lead;^ there are no parapets 

 eicept to the transept. 



The chancel has a chamfered plinth, diagonal angle 

 buttresses, and a keel-shaped string at sill level, which 

 is taken over the priest's doorway as a label. The east 

 window is a modern one of three cinquefoiled lights 

 and Decorated tracery,* but the two windows in the 

 south wall are 15th-century insertions, of two lights 

 with Perpendicular tracery; a single window of the 

 same t)'pe in the north wall is modern. The sill of the 

 south-eastern window is lowered to form a scat, but no 

 other ancient ritual arrangements remain. The 13th- 

 century priest's doorway has an unmoulded outer order 

 on nook-shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and 

 a chamfered inner order continued to the ground: the 

 eastern shaft is gone. Below the western window is 

 a rectangular low-side opening, the head of which, 

 though below the 13th-century string, is a transom, 

 perhaps belonging to a former taller window. Both the 

 priest's doorway and low-side window are now blocked 

 and not seen within. The doorway to the modern 

 vestry in the north wall formerly opened to a priest's 

 room or sacrist}', and is of early- 14th-century date, of 

 two continuous orders, the outer with a sunk chamfer, 

 the inner wave-moulded. There is also in the north 

 wall a plain tomb recess with two-centred chamfered 

 arch, and in the north-west angle a squint from the 

 transept. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders, 

 without hood-mould, springing from half-round re- 

 sponds with moulded capitals, with an outer shaft on 

 the west side grouping with the half-round responds 

 of the nave arcades. 



The arches of the arcades are of two chamfered 

 orders springing from piers with moulded bell-shaped 

 capitals, the westernmost pier on each side being circular 



' In 1849 the towrr wis stated to lean 

 Dearly 2 ft. to the west, while the spire 

 was straight; Chi. ylrchd. N'lon. 36. The 

 church was reopened, after restoration, on 

 19 October 1870. 



' The former porch was described as 

 'old, but not as old as the (south) doorway" 

 (ibid. 36). The new porch is in memory of 

 WiUiam Lake Baker (d. 1865), rector for 

 forty-teven years. It has a stone front and 



open timbered sides on low stone walls. 



^ Before the restoration all the roofs, 

 except that of the porch, were leaded 

 (ibid. 36). 



* In 1849 the window was described as 

 "merely a square aperture' (ibid. 36). 



^ Before the restoration this was a plain 

 •quare-headed opening, without muUiont 

 or tracery. 



^ Originally the window was tran- 



and the others octagonal: at the west end the responds 

 are half-octagons. The details of the capitals vary. 



The east window of the south aisle is a single lancet, 

 and that in the south wall west of the porch a pointed 

 opening of two lights with forked mullion. The west 

 wall is blank. East of the porch are a late-i 5th<entury 

 four-centred window of three cinquefoiled lights, and 

 a much restored square-headed opening of three tre- 

 foiled lights with modern tracer}'.' The south doorway 

 is very good early- 13th-century work, with pointed 

 arch of three orders, the inner with continuous chamfer, 

 the two outer on nook-shafts with moulded capitals 

 and bases, with a shorter third shaft set in the angle 

 behind. The middle order has a double row of dog- 

 tooth ornament, and the outer is a late form of 

 chevron moulding; the label has moulded corbel-like 

 terminations. 



The contemporary north doorway is of two cham- 

 fered orders, the inner continuous and the outer on 

 shafts with moulded capitals and bases. West of the 

 doorway is a four-centred window of three cinque- 

 foiled lights, and east of it a square-headed two-light 

 window, but the west wall is blank. A 1 5th<entury 

 arch of t\vo chamfered orders divides the aisle from the 

 transept which, occupying the eastern bay, is internally 

 1 1 ft. wide by 10 ft. 4 in. deep. It has a low-pitched 

 gabled roof, and restored four-centred north window 

 of three trefoiled lights with Perpendicular tracery.* 

 In the east wall is a wide, flat arched recess. The 13th- 

 century trefoil-headed piscina recess of the aisle altar 

 remains in the south-east angle of the transept, but the 

 bowl has gone. The transept was formerly inclosed by 

 parclose screens.' 



The clerestory has four quatrefoil windows on each 

 side, the easternmost within a circular label and with 

 roundels at the terminations of the foils,' the others 

 plain and set directly in the rubble walling. 



The tower, as rebuilt, preserves its original archi- 

 tectural features, though containing much new masonry 

 and restored detail. It is of three stages marked by 

 strings, with double angle buttresses and a tall lancet 

 on the west in the lofty lower stage. The upper story 

 is slightly set back and the bell-chamber windows are 

 of two lancet lights with circular dividing shafts on the 

 north and south, and rectangular chamfered mullions 

 east and west, the arches springing at the sides from 

 moulded corbels; the space within the enclosing arch 

 is pierced. In the middle stage, on the west side only, 

 is a small trefoil opening,' but the two lower stages 

 north and south are blank. In the south-east angle is 

 a circular projecting staircase with conical roof of 

 coursed stone above a band of nail-head ornament. 

 The lofty tower arch is of two chamfered orders, the 

 inner on moulded corbels, the outer continuous. The 

 spire is of only slightly later date than the tower and is 

 of equal height;'" it has three sets of spire lights, the two 

 lower on the cardinal faces, and the upper alternating. 



The early-i3th-ccntury font consists of a plain 

 octagonal bowl slightly chamfered at the top, with 

 carved heads on two of its faces. It stands on a plain 

 somed, the lower lights being trefoiled and 

 the upper cinquefoiled : CAt. Arc/ui. N'ton, 

 36. 



' Ibid. 39. 



* That on the north side is wholly re- 

 stored. 



^ This and the lancet window below are 

 wholly renewed. 



"> Height of tower 45 ft., whole height 

 to top of spire 90 ft. : Chi. Archil. N'ton. ]6. 



19 



