A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



table resting on faces and notch-heads from which the 

 spire rises behind a later battlemented parapet. The 

 spire has ribbed angles and three tiers of gabled open- 

 ings on the cardinal faces, the bottom ones transomed 

 and of two lights. The total height of tower and spire 

 is 156 ft.' 



The late 14th-century font consists of an elaborately 

 carved octagonal bowl and base, but the stem is missing. 

 The bowl has a cinquefoiled crocketed canopy on each 

 face and the base a band of quatrefoils and trefoils. 



The wooden pulpit and chancel screen are modern.^ 

 There is an oak chest dated 1 701 and at the east end 

 of the aisle a good Jacobean communion table with 

 carved top rail and thick fluted baluster legs. 



In front of the chancel arch is a floor slab with a brass 

 inscription which reads: 'Hie jacet magist' Thoiiis de 

 Wynceby qndin rector isti' ecclie cui' an ppiciet' ds 

 amen.'3 



In the chancel is a mural monument to John Atkins, 

 gent., 'lord of the manor of Stanwigge'(d. 1668-9), and 

 at the east end of the aisle one to Mrs. Mary Pacey, 

 lady of the manor (d. 1784). 



There are three bells, the first of 14th-century date 

 inscribed 'Symon de Hazfelde me fecit', the second 

 dated 172 1, and the tenor i6i3.'» 



The plate consists of a silver paten of 1705, an alms 

 dish of 1734, a flagon of 1845, and two cups of 1856, 

 all London make.^ 



The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) bap- 

 tisms and burials 1558-1678, marriages 1561-1677, 

 with a gap in all entries 1570-7; (ii) baptisms 1680— 

 1757, marriages 1695-1757, burials 1679-1758; 

 (iii) baptisms and burials 1758-181Z; (iv) marriages 

 1758-1812. 



The church of St. Lawrence at 



ADVOWSON Stanwick was valued in 1291 at 



;£i3 6/. %d., deducting the pension of 



£\ and the portion of £;i 6s. id. due to the Abbot of 



Peterborough, to whom the advowson belonged.* 



In the Easter term of 1369 an interesting case was 

 brought on a writ of quare impedit against the papal 



presentee to this church.' Michael SkiUyng stated on 

 behalf of the king that the church had fallen vacant 

 when the teraporalties of the abbey were in the king's 

 hands by the death of Abbot Adam of Boothby (1321- 

 38), for which reason the king should have made 

 the presentation. William Kirkstede, the incumbent, 

 replied that Thomas de Winceby had been provided 

 by the Pope in the lifetime of Adam and had been 

 parson afterwards, and that he himself had been pro- 

 vided by the Pope on Winceby's death after Henry of 

 Overton (i 361— 91) had become abbot. Thomas de 

 Winceby, who was parson of Stanwick in 1344,* had 

 probably been provided during the vacancy, for on 24 

 August 1 3 5 2 he obtained a ratification of his estate with 

 a warrant against disturbance by reason of any title the 

 king could claim by reason of the voidance of Peter- 

 borough Abbey.' Presumably the king reserved the 

 right to make its next presentation. The jurors, how- 

 ever, found simply that 'the said church was vacant 

 during the vacancy of the abbey: so that the Lord King 

 may recover the presentation'.'" Accordingly, Edward 

 presented Richard son of John Travers of Aldwinkle 

 on 18 November." 



At the Dissolution the advowson of Stanwick passed 

 to the Crown, which retained it.'- The living is now in 

 the gift of the Lord Chancellor. 



There are 1 1 acres of arable land in 

 CHARITIES the parish called the Church Lands, 

 the rent of which has from long usage 

 been applied by the churchwardens towards church ex- 

 penses. The land is let on yearly tenancy for £,\z 10/. 



Peter Needham, D.D., Rector of Stanwick, be- 

 queathed ;^io to be laid out in land, the income to be 

 distributed to poor housekeepers. The money was laid 

 out in the purchase of land in Scaley Field which was 

 conveyed by deed dated 29 July 1734 to the vicar and 

 churchwardens. On an inclosure of the open fields an 

 allotment of I a. o r. 5 p. situate in the adjoining parish 

 of Raunds was set out in lieu of the land in Scaley Field. 

 The land is let on a yearly tenancy and produces £z 5/. 

 which is distributed in money to about 20 recipients. 



STRIXTON 



Trikeston, Struxton (xiii cent.) ; Stryxton (xv cent.) ; 

 Strykson (xvi cent.); Stroxton (xvii cent.). 



Strixton is a small parish and village consisting of 3 

 farmhouses and 12 cottages. It is \\ miles north of 

 Bozeat on the main road from Wellingborough to 

 Olney. Its area is 8 1 2 acres. Its population, which was 

 57 in 1 801, and 48 in 1871, was 44 in 193 1. When 

 Bridges wrote, there were only two families; the manor 

 house, which stood immediately east of the church and 

 is said to have been an Elizabethan building, had 'an 

 orchard of near 8 acres, well planted with different 

 kinds of fruit'. '^ The parish lies at a height of about 

 200 to 300 ft. Its soil is of a fertile, mixed character, 

 its subsoil limestone: the chief crops grown are wheat, 

 barley, oats, and beans. 



The village lies at the north-east of the parish on a 

 road branching west from the main road. The children 

 attend school at Wollaston, I mile distant. The rector 

 resides at Bozeat, with the vicarage of which parish 

 Strixton, a discharged rectory, is consoHdated. 



Greenfield Lodge lies at the south-eastern angle of 

 the parish. In the extreme south-west there are old 

 gravel-pits, from which Strixton Plantation, a long 

 narrow strip of woodland, runs north. In the north- 

 west is Hillmount Spinney. 



The men of Wollaston and Strixton were in 1254 

 the subject of an inquiry for alleged trespasses against 

 the bailiffs of the forests of Rockingham and Salcey,'* 

 but in 1263 as the result of this inquiry, which showed 

 that they had always been without the bounds of the 



' Chi. Archd. N'ton, 46. 



^ In 1 849 tfie pulpit given by John 

 Dolben, bishop of Rochester, was still in 

 the church: ibid. 50. 



3 Bridges says that the name does not 

 occur in the Lincoln register. His sugges- 

 tion that Wynceby was rector before 

 Richard Travers, instituted in 1369 (op. 

 cit. ii, 196), is correct: see below, under 



'Advowson', 



* North, Ch. Bells 0/ Northants. 403, 

 where the inscriptions are given. Simon 

 de Hazfelde was casting 1353-73; a bell 

 by him is at Sutterton, Lines. 



5 Markham, Ch. Plate of Northants. 

 266. The whole of the plate was presented 

 by Stephen Eaton EUand in 1856 as set 

 forth in an inscription on the alms dish. 



' Pope Nich. Tax. 40. 



' De Banco R. 434, m. 69. 



8 Cal.Pat. 1343-5, p. 352. 



« Ibid. 1350-4, p. 317. 

 'o De Banco R. 434, m. 69. 

 " Cal.Pat. 1367-70, p. 168. 

 " Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 

 " Hist, of Northants. ii, 196. 

 » Cal.Pat. 1247-58, p. 377. 



54 



