HIGHAM FERRERS HUxNDRED 



R.'^UNDS 



plan. It seems fairly clear that the arcade was not taken 

 beyond the chancel arch, but for the time being was 

 finished with a half-arch against its south abutment, 

 west of which the old arch to the south transept was 

 retained, though the transept itself by this time had 

 been merged into the incompleted aisle. .^1 this work, 

 which included the chancel on its present plan with the 

 existing great east window and buttresses, was com- 

 pleted about 1 260, and it was only about 1 300 that the 

 south arcade of the nave was proceeded with. The 

 presence of I jth-century work in the porch, however, 

 makes it possible that the south aisle had been com- 

 pleted westward before this time. The building of the 

 south arcade was begun at the west end with a wide 

 arch from the tower respond to the first pier, covering 

 the space between the tower and the old west wall of 

 the nave, which was now taken down. Between this 

 and the portion of wall which marked the opening to 

 the transept, the space was treated as three equal bays, 

 a short piece of the wall being retained with a respond 

 on its west side: the old transept arch, however, was 

 taken down and a new chancel arch was made, and a 

 fifth pier, octagonal in section like those farther west, 

 was inserted, with a half-arch corresponding to that on 

 the opposite side of the abutment, which was now 

 rebuilt. All this work, including the existing south aisle 

 walls, appears to have been completed in the early part 

 of the 14th century, the south chapel walls being re- 

 modelled rather later.' 



The erection of the north aisle in the 14th century 

 was a simpler matter. The north transept being taken 

 down the new aisle was set out without regard to its 

 position, the arcade being planned in five more or less 

 equal bays from a new respond — probably corresponding 

 to the east respond of the old transept arch — to the 1 3th- 

 century respond next the tower, while the aisle wall 

 was set out in seven bays, incorporating a 1 3th-century 

 doorway removed from the old north wall. This work 

 probably followed that on the south side at no very 

 great interval, and the outer walls may even have been 

 in progress together, but the south arcade, with its 

 hesitating and irregular construction, is the beginning 

 of the work which the north arcade probably concluded. 



About 1400 the nave was new roofed and a clere- 

 story added, followed shortly by the heightening of the 

 chancel walls with clerestory windows on the south 

 side. The I 5th centur)' also saw the rebuilding of the 

 porch in its present form, with upper room, the intro- 

 duction of a vault in the lower stage of the tower, and 

 the insertion of new windows in the side walls of the 

 chancel, and in the south chapel and aisle. 



In comparatively modern times- the original low- 

 pitched roofs of the aisles were altered to lean-to roofs 

 by raising the outer covering of the portion next the 

 nave, but without disturbing the interior framing, and 



' The south-east buttress seems to be 

 late 14th century. 



' Some time before 1 849 : Chs. Archd. 

 N'lon, 56. 



> It was struck by lightning ] 1 July 1 826, 

 when about 30 ft. was thrown down, doing 

 much damage to the roof of the church; 

 ibid. 53. The spire was injured in a storm 

 in January i8<j5, and 1 1 ft. had to be re- 

 built. It was entirely renovated in 1923. 



■• There was a further restoration of the 

 chancel in 1900. The porch was restored 

 in the same year. 



^ The window is figured in Sharpc's 

 Decorated H'lndt/iv Tracery^ plate 9, as 

 it existed in 1 849, the circles being without 



cusps. After the engraving had been made 

 Sir Gilbert Scott ascertained that the cir- 

 cles were grooved for soffit cusps, which 

 had slipped out or been removed, and the 

 grooves filled up with cement. The cusp- 

 ings of the lower lights, being solid, had 

 remained; ibid. 36, 62. The window is 

 23 ft. 9 in. high by 16 ft. 3 in. in width. 



' Alloc. Arch. So(. Ref>oris, xxix, 442. 

 The opening is 22 J in. by 11 in., and is 

 3 ft. 8 in. above the ground outside. 



' The first arch from the cast is not a 

 complete arch, the springing of the eastern 

 arc being stilted. The shape of the arches 

 suggests a rather later date than the piers. 

 Part of the head of a blocked pointed 



in 1 826 the top of the spire was rebuilt following injury 

 in a storm.-* In 1 860 the chapel of St. Peter was thrown 

 open to the church, having previously served as the 

 village school. In 1874 the nave was restored by Sir 

 Gilbert Scott, a west gallery being removed and the 

 tower arch exposed: the restoration of the chancel fol- 

 lowed in iSyS.'* 



Though much altered in the 1 5th century, the 

 chancel is in the main of the period 1 240-60. The 

 great east window is somewhat advanced in design. It 

 is of six trefoiled lights with simple geometrical tracer)', 

 shafted jambs and master muUion dividing the lights 

 into two groups, each group with a sub-head filled with 

 three quatrefoiled circles, and a large octofoiled circle 

 above forming a centre-piece: the window was recon- 

 structed in 1900, and its soffit cusping restored. * The 

 buttresses facing east are gabled, but the others slope 

 back at two levels. On the south side the chancel pro- 

 jects about 14 ft. beyond the chapel and is lighted by 

 a tall four-centred 1 5th<entury window of three lights 

 with two embattled transoms and vertical tracery. The 

 north wall is divided externally into three bays by but- 

 tresses, the two western bays being occupied by I 5th- 

 century windows of three cinquefoiled lights and double 

 transoms, resembling those on the south side but differ- 

 ing in detail. The eastern bay was formerly covered by 

 a two-story i jth-century sacristry, the four-centred 

 doorway of which is now blocked by a buttress: the 

 upper room had a window opening into the church. A 

 keel-shaped string runs round the chancel inside at sill- 

 levcl, and in the usual position in the south wall, below 

 the window, is a plain moulded piscina, the bowl of 

 which is mutilated. Two feet farther west is a second 

 piscina with trefoiled head and fluted bowl, and im- 

 mediately west of this again a single trefoil-headed 

 scdile with crocketed canopy. In the north wall, be- 

 tween the windows, is a large rectangular aumbry with 

 modern door, breaking the string, and below the 

 westernmost window a small rectangular low-side open- 

 ing, probably 14th century, now blocked.* There is 

 another aumbr)' in the east wall south of the altar, now 

 covered by panelling. 



The arches of the chancel arcade are of two cham- 

 fered orders springing from circular piers with moulded 

 capitals and bases, and at the east end from a moulded 

 corbel.' The 14th-century chancel arch, which as 

 already stated divides the western bay into two half 

 arches, is of two moulded orders on moulded responds 

 with capitals and high bases, and the south abutment 

 forms a large buttress of two stages: towards the nave 

 each hollow moulding of the arch is enriched with ball- 

 flower ornament, and there is a hood-mould on each 

 side. There is evidence of the later insertion of a tym- 

 panum with rood-group above.' The heightened south 

 wall of the chancel is pierced by four square-headed 

 opening over the first pier from the east 

 otters certain difficulties. Perhaps the 

 walls of the 13th-century chancel were 

 begun at the west end before the idea of 

 a south chapel was proposed, and a window 

 made which was useless when the aisling 

 scheme was taken in hand. The wall is 

 plastered on the side facing the chapel. 



• Vertical chases under the hollow of 

 the eastern order show whcie the timber 

 upright quarters of the tympanum were 

 fixed, and horizontal cuts, on the north 

 and south, interrupting the label above the 

 arch, indicate where a transverse beam was 

 fixed to support the bottom ends of the 

 uprights. The upper part of the arch was 



zs 



