A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The upper part of the screen, or reredos, has an arcading 

 of five cinquefoiled crocketed ogee arches and battle- 

 mented top. There is no trace of a piscina, but a rebated 

 rectangular aumbry remains in the north wall. The 

 sacristy is entered from the chancel by a 1 3th-century 

 continuous-chamfered doorway, and at its north end, 

 covering the north-east corner of the building, is an 

 octagonal battlemented turret containing a vice which 

 gives access to the chapel roof; the doorway to the vice 

 is 13th century, but is probably not in its original posi- 

 tion.' The chapel roof is modern, but old stone corbels 

 remain on the south side. 



The south chapel (38 ft. by 14 ft.) is lighted at the 

 east end by a pointed window of four lights and on the 

 south by three four-centred windows, the westernmost 

 of two and the others of three cinquefoiled lights, all 

 with transoms, vertical tracery and crocketed hood- 

 moulds. In the easternmost window on the south 

 the transom is battlemented and the hood-mould of 

 the'middle window has stops containing shields with the 

 monograms IhC and 5T?. In the usual position in the 

 south wall is a 15th-century piscina with cusped head, 

 crocketed label, and square bowl. The elaborate west 

 arch of the chapel is of two moulded orders, its western 

 face set within a rectangular moulded frame with 

 panelled spandrels supported by scroll-bearing angels- 

 on brackets. The jambs of the arch have a deep case- 

 ment and shafted mouldings with capitals and heads 

 over the hollows: an inscription on the soffit records the 

 construction of the arch by Hugh Bochar and Julian 

 his wife.3 



The transepts for the most part preserve their late- 

 I3th-century character. The walls, with their short 

 coupled angle buttresses of a single stage, remain un- 

 altered, and with the exception of the east window of 

 the south transept, which is a tall I jth-century opening 

 of three cinquefoiled lights with two embattled tran- 

 soms and elaborate vertical tracery, all the original 

 windows have survived. There is a chamfered string- 

 course at sill level all round, stopping against the aisle 

 walls, but both end-gables are of low pitch and the roofs 

 have been altered. In the south transept ironstone is 

 used in quoins, parapets, and bands in the south and 

 west walls, but in the north arm in the quoins only. 

 The end window of the south arm consists of three 

 trefoiled graduated lancets, with pierced spandrels, 

 double chamfered jambs, and hood-mould with notch 

 terminations. The west wall is blank. The north end 

 window is of four lights with intersecting tracery con- 

 sisting of trefoiled circles, and has double hollow-cham- 

 fered jambs and hood-mould. The two inner lights are 

 trefoiled, the outer plain. In the east wall is a window 

 of two lancet lights with trefoiled circle in the head and 

 notch-ended hood-mould, and a smaller one with re- 

 versed trefoil in the head high up at the south end of the 

 wall. There are corresponding windows, slightly differ- 

 ing in detail, in the west wall. In the north transept are 

 two rectangular aumbries, one at each end of the east 

 wall, and in the west wall below the window a pointed 

 doorway of a single continuous chamfered order: there 

 is no piscina. The south transept was set apart in 1919 



as a War Memorial Chapel, and the walls covered to 

 sill level with panelling. Both transepts are separated 

 from the aisles by 15th-century screens, but their 

 roofs extend to the arcade of the nave, the eastern bay 

 of which forms a structural 'crossing': the roofs are 

 modern, or much restored. In the south transept the 

 string below the parapet belongs to the 14th-century 

 alterations and is ornamented with heads connected by 

 tendrils. 



The arches of the nave arcades are of two chamfered 

 orders with hood-mould, springing from rather slender 

 octagonal piers* with moulded capitals and bases: the 

 inner order dies out above the capitals. The eastern- 

 most bay ranges with the transepts and its arches are 

 therefore considerably wider than those farther west:' 

 the responds follow the design of the piers but their 

 moulded capitals are simpler. There are also transverse 

 arches across the aisles west of the transepts, of two 

 chamfered orders, straggling and unequal in shape, 

 which spring on the wall side from corbels placed lower 

 than the pier capitals. The strainer arch, which was 

 introduced early in the 15th century to counteract the 

 thrust of these transverse arches, consists, like that at 

 Finedon, of a two-centred segmental moulded lower 

 arch springing from the capitals of the easternmost 

 piers, with an upper single-segment inverted arch 

 resting upon it. The spandrels are filled with large 

 traceried circles and elongated quatrefoils, and the 

 inverted arch consists of a moulding and band of 

 pierced quatrefoils set lozengewise surmounted by a 

 battlemented cresting. At the spring of the lower arch, 

 on either side, are figures of angels masking its junction 

 with the arcade. 



The two tall four-centred 15th-century windows of 

 the aisles are of three cinquefoiled lights, of the same 

 general character as those at the east end of the church, 

 with elaborate vertical tracery beginning considerably 

 below the spring of the arch and divided into two stages 

 by embattled transoms. The single round-headed win- 

 dows at the west end of the aisles appear to be 18th- 

 century insertions, or adaptations of earlier openings: 

 the stops of the hood-mould of that to the north aisle 

 bear the date 171 8.* 



There are five pointed clerestory windows on each 

 side; three over the two western bays are of four cinque- 

 foiled lights with traceried heads, and the others over 

 the transepts are single cinquefoiled openings. 



The 13th-century north doorway is of two hollow- 

 chamfered orders, the inner continuous with trefoiled 

 head, the outer semicircular on nook-shafts with moulded 

 capital and bases, and hood-mould with head-stops. 

 The beautiful 15th-century two-story porch is elabor- 

 ately vaulted and has a four-centred moulded outer arch 

 within a rectangular frame, with traceried spandrels'' 

 and canopied niche above. The bracket for a statue 

 remains, but in 1829 the niche was converted into a 

 window to light the porch chamber, the original win- 

 dow on the west side being then blocked, .'\ccess to the 

 chamber is from the outside by a doorway cut through 

 the upper part of the east wall.' The diagonal angle 

 buttresses of the porch are of two stages and in the west 



' It was probably the outer doorway of 

 the original sacristy. 



^ On the north side the scroll bears the 

 inscription 'In God is all', on the south 

 'In God help'. 



3 The inscription reads: 'This arche 

 made Hue bochar & Julian hise wyf of 

 w[h]os sowlys God have merci up on 



Amen.' 



* The piers are about 18 J in. diameter: 

 the moulded bases stand on massive square 

 masonry plinths. 



5 The width of the arches, from west to 

 east, is 14 ft. 7 in., 13 ft. 9 in., and 19 ft. 

 1 in. respectively. 



' Chs. Archd. N'lon, 178. The 



48 



numerals are divided; the two latter are 

 nearly obliterated. 



7 The spandrels contain blank shields 

 within quatrefoiled circles. 



* 'Before the passing of the Poor Law 

 Act the chamber was allotted by the parish 

 authorities as the residence of an old 

 woman*: ArcA, Jour, xxxv, 430, 



