HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



RUSHDEN 



strainer arch between the nave and crossing of the tran- 

 sept are of the early 1 5 th centur}-, while the north and 

 south chapels of the chancel are a late-l jth-century re- 

 building and probable enlargement of earlier chapels 

 which involved also the rebuilding of the chancel 

 arcades. To the 1 5 th century also belong the north 

 porch, windows in the aisles, the east window of the 

 south transept, the roofs of the nave and aisles and the 

 parapets throughout. The church was restored in 1872. 

 Externally the whole of the east end of the building 

 is of late-i jth-century date, except the 13th-century 



cusped lights, with a quatrefoiled circle in the head, 

 flush with the face of the wall and repeated towards the 

 aisle, or chapel; this opening is without glass lines and 

 appears to have been always an internal feature, but 

 some alteration in position may be suspected. 



The chancel arcades have four-centred arches of two 

 orders separated by casements, on piers consisting of 

 four attached shafts with hollows between, and moulded 

 capitals and bases. The two arches on the north side, 

 which open to the Lady Chapel, are considerably wider 

 than those opposite and both orders are moulded, the 



132 Century late 

 141!! Century 

 152! Century 

 m 18™ Cent and 



Modern 



Plan of Rushden Church 



priest's doorway in the south chapel, which is of a single 

 continuous chamfered order with hood-mould. The 

 chancel roof is lower than that of the nave, and the 

 chapels have high lean-to roofs, making a long straggling 

 battlemented gable across the whole of the unbroken 

 cast front. The chancel has an elaborate four-centred 

 east window of five cinqucfoiled lights, with battle- 

 mented transom, vertical tracery, and crocketcd hood- 

 mould with figure stops and finial carried up the middle 

 merlon of the parapet to a now empty canopied niche. 

 To the north of the altar is an image-bracket and cinque- 

 foiled canopied niche and in the usual position in the 

 south wall a beautiful 13th-century piscina and triple 

 sedilia forming a single composition of four delicately 

 moulded trcfoiled arches, under straight labels or 

 canopies with head-stops and small trefoils in the span- 

 drels. The arches spring from detached shafts with 

 moulded bases and moulded and foliated capitals.' At 

 the east end the jamb is an attached shaft with fillet on 

 the face and moulded capital and base: the seats are on 

 one level. The west jamb of the piscina is chamfered, 

 with a moulding at the top: the bowl is mutilated. 

 Above the sedilia is a 1 3th-century opening of two un- 

 ' One only of the cipiulj is foliated, the others moulded. 



inner order resting on half-round responds, the outer 

 continued to the ground. On the south side the orders 

 are hollow-chamfered and are similarly treated. The 

 sharply pointed chancel arch is of two chamfered 

 orders, the inner springing from half-octagonal responds 

 with moulded capitals and bases, the outer continuous. 

 The Lady Chapel (33 ft. 6 in.^ by 14 ft. 6 in.) is 

 lighted on the north side by two four-centred windows 

 of three and four cinqucfoiled lights respectively, with 

 simple tracery and hood-moulds with head-stops, and 

 at the east end by a large pointed window of five cinque- 

 foiled lights with moulded jambs, elaborate vertical 

 tracery and enriched hood-mould. The flowers in the 

 hollow of the hood-mould are repeated in a string- 

 course below the parapet. The west arch, separating 

 the chapel from the north aisle, is of three chamfered 

 orders on the west and two on the cast side, the inner 

 order on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals 

 and bases, and the hood-mould terminating in grotesque 

 heads. The east end of the chapel is screened off, as at 

 Higham Ferrers, by a solid wall about 8 ft. high, against 

 which the altar was set, the space beyond forming the 

 sacrist)', a long narrow chamber about 4 ft. in width. 



' Or 38 f(. including the ucritly at its ca>t end. 



47 



