A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



was restored in 1879,' and the tower and spire in 

 1883.2 



The church is built throughout of rubble, plastered 

 internally, and the chancel has a modern tiled eaved 

 roof. The nave and aisle have low-pitched leaded roofs 

 behind batdemented parapets, the nave parapets being 

 very big and clumsy.' 



The chancel is of two bays with chamfered plinth 

 and diagonal angle buttresses of two stages. The pointed 

 east window is of three trefoiled lights with reticulated 

 tracery and internal and e-xternal hood-moulds ter- 

 minating in notch-heads, and at the east end of the 

 south wall and west end of the north wall are pointed 

 windows of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the 

 head and similar hood-moulds. The priest's doorway 

 has a continuous moulding, but is quite plain internally, 

 and west of it is a square-headed window of two tre- 

 foiled lights with pointed rear-arch. The siUs of the 

 two south windows form seats. There are image- 

 brackets in the east wall north and south of the altar, 

 the former quite plain, the latter mutilated but with 

 a sculptured face on the underside. Along the south 

 wall is an arcade of six pointed arches of a single cham- 

 fered order without hood-moulds, springing, except at 

 tht east end, from attached half-shafts with moulded 

 capitals and bases, and continued down the jamb at the 

 west. The easternmost arch forms the piscina recess 

 and is carried on a detached octagonal shaft and half- 

 octagonal respond with moulded capitals and bases: the 

 bowl of the piscina is fluted. The remainder of the 

 arcade stands on a stone bench table with projecting 

 ledge 13 in. above the present floor-level and extending 

 as far as the priest's doorway. The eastern bay of the 

 north wall is blank but for a pointed recess of a single 

 hollow-chamfered order, on part-octagonal shafts with 

 moulded capitals.* The chancel arch is of two cham- 

 fered orders, the outer stopped or cut away, and the 

 inner continued to the ground. On the north side is a 

 plain pointed squint from the nave and on the south a 

 small bracket. The floors of chancel and nave are level. 



The nave arcade appears to have been cut through 

 an earlier wall, there being about 6 ft. of masonry at the 

 east end and 3 ft. at the west. The responds follow the 

 section of the pier, which is composed of four attached 

 shafts with fillets and hollows between, and with 

 moulded capital and base. The bells of the respond 

 capitals are plain, but that of the pier is carved with oak 

 leaves and over one of the shafts is a four-leaf flower.' 

 The arches are of two chamfered orders. 



There are three square-headed clerestory windows 

 of two trefoiled lights on each side, and the hollow 

 string below the parapet is ornamented on the south 

 side with four-leaf flowers, faces, and shields, and with 

 heads at the angles.* 



The north doorway is of a single continuous wave- 

 moulded order with label, and the aisle has two four- 

 centred windows of two and three cinquefoiled lights 

 respectively in the north wall and a square-headed 

 window of three trefoiled lights with Perpendicular 



' Reopened 23 July 1879. 



^ Reopened 10 January 1884. 



^ There are seven merlons only on each 

 side. The porch has plain parapets. 



^ The recess is 6 ft. wide, and the arch 

 springs at a height of 3 ft. 6 in. The bases 

 of the shafts are covered with plaster. The 

 depth of the recess is 8i in., but it appears 

 to have been filled in : a joint in the 

 external masonry indicates the position of 

 the east jamb. 



5 The capital follows the outline of the 

 pier, over three shafts of which are detached 

 oak leaves and over the fourth two oak 

 leaves and a four-leaf flower. 



6 There is also the figure of a man lying 

 full length : on the north side the string is 

 plain. 



' In 1 S49 the upper part of the tower 

 arch was blocked by a gallery : Chs. Arch. 

 N'ton. 175. 



tracery at the east end. The mutilated piscina of the 

 aisle altar remains in the usual position and south of the 

 east window is a plain chamfered image-bracket. 



The four-centred south doorway is of a single con- 

 tinuous moulded order with hood-mould, and the nave 

 has a single window of three cinquefoiled lights with 

 depressed head. The pointed outer doorway of the 

 porch is of two chamfered orders, and in the gable above 

 is a modern panel with St. Peter's keys: the porch has 

 stone benches and traceried side windows. 



The tower is of three stages, with battlemented 

 parapet and angle gargoyles. The north and south walls 

 are blank in the lower stages, but on the west is a 

 modern trefoiled lancet window between two heavy 

 two-stage buttresses set well back from the angles. 

 There are buttresses also on the south and east sides, but 

 no vice. The bell-chamber windows are of two tre- 

 foiled lights with quatrefoil in the head. The tower 

 arch is the full width of the interior, its three chamfered 

 orders dying out on either side.' The spire has plain 

 angles and two sets of gabled openings on the cardinal 

 faces, the lower being of two trefoiled lights: its low 

 broaches are hidden by the parapet. 



The lean-to roof of the aisle is old, perhaps 17th 

 century, with moulded principals and purlins, and wall- 

 pieces resting on the stone corbels of an earlier roof, 

 carved with heads and grotesques. 



The 14th-century font has a plain octagonal bowl 

 moulded on the underside, stem with incised tracery on 

 six of its eight sides, and moulded plinth: there is a later 

 pyramidal oak cover with battlemented edge and 

 crocketed angles. 



The pulpit retains a little I gth-century woodwork, 

 but is for the most part a restoration: some 17th-century 

 panels are worked into it at the back. 



The wooden chancel screen is in memorj' of the men 

 of the village who feU in the war of 1914-18. 



On blue stone slabs in the chancel floor are two well- 

 preserved 1 5th-century brasses of priests in mass vest- 

 ments, the earlier representing William Hewet, rector 

 (d. 1426), and the later Roger Hewet, chaplain (d. 



1487).* 



Some fragments of I jth-century glass remain in two 



of the aisle windows, including a mitred head said to 

 represent Archbishop Chichele, and in the north win- 

 dow of the chancel two heads of saints, formerly in the 

 clerestory. 



Two 1 5th-century oak seats, with moulded rails and 

 buttressed ends, remain in the nave, and one as a 

 return stall in the chancel. In the vestry is a Iate-I7th- 

 or early- 18th-century chest. 



There is a mural tablet in the nave to Harry Lamb, 

 gent. (d. 1727). 



To the south-east of the porch is the base of a church- 

 yard cross.' 



There are four bells, the first dated 1746, the second 

 by Taylor & Co., 1887, the third a medieval bell in- 

 scribed 'Sancte Petre ora pro nobis', and the tenor an 

 alphabet bell dated 1639.'° 



' They are figured in Hudson's Brasses 

 cf Northants. 



' Assoc. Arch. Soc. Reports, xxiii, 183. 

 '» North, Ch. Bells of Northants. 343, 

 where the inscriptions on the first, third, 

 and tenor are given. The third has the 

 shield used by the Bury St. Edmunds 

 foundry, bearing the initials H.S. and 

 also the keys of St. Peter, a bell, a cannon, 

 and the crossed arrows of St. Edmund. 



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