A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



inserted. The aisles may have been rebuilt at the same 

 time, but the fact that the south chapel is 2 ft. narrower 

 than that on the north would seem to indicate that 

 when in the 15th-century reconstruction the south aisle 

 was rebuilt on the old foundation the north aisle was 

 widened. The altar of St. Mary is thought to have 

 been in the north chapel,' which appears to have been 

 extended about 9 ft. eastward. The south doorway, 

 which is of Transitional Norman character, with a 

 pointed arch of three square orders on moulded 

 imposts, was moved outward to its present position 

 when the aisle was added. A double lancet window in 

 the north wall of the north chapel was probably moved 

 from the chancel, or may have been in the original aisle. 

 The east wall of the chancel has been rebuilt above 



Scale of Feet 

 10 20 3o 



Plan of Abincton Church 



the plinth and has a stepped gable and modern pointed 

 window of three lights with muUions crossing in the 

 head. In the north wall is a square-headed 14th- 

 century window of two trefoiled lights and west of it 

 the blocked lancet already mentioned. West of this a 

 modern arch opens to the organ-chamber.^ On the 

 south side is a square-headed window similar to that on 

 the north, the jambs of which are modern. Farther west 

 is another window now blocked. The piscina and 

 sedilia^ are of 1 5th-century date, the former with plain 

 pointed head and the latter, three in number, with tre- 

 foiled heads and detached moulded shafts. An aumbry 

 in the north wall has been plastered over. An old altar 

 slab is kept in the chancel. The communion rails are 

 of 18th-century date. 



The north chapel has a pointed east window of three 

 cinquefoiled lights and quatrefoil in the head and on 

 the north side a three-light window without tracery, 

 west of which is the double lancet already referred to. 

 The walls at the east end of the chapel are old, but 

 farther west the north wall has been rebuilt above the 



plinth. In the east waU, north of the window, is a stone 

 bracket or corbel for an image. 



The walls of the south chapel have been entirely 

 rebuilt, but the four-centred window of three lights on 

 the south side is an old one re-used. The east wall is 

 blank. All the windows of the nave have wooden frames, 

 and both nave and chancel have flat plaster ceilings and 

 plastered walls. The chancel arch and those between 

 the chapels and the nave are plastered, and there is a 

 west gallery the full width of the building. 



The tower is of four stages without buttresses, and, 

 like the rest of the building, of rubble with dressed 

 quoins. The original lower stages are marked by strings, 

 but the upper story is distinguished only by the change 

 in the character of the masonry and of its architectural 

 features. It has an embattled 

 parapet and bell-chamber 

 windows of two trefoiled 

 lights with a sexfoil in the 

 head and transom at mid- 

 height. The two-light west 

 window and four-centred 

 doorway are 15th-century 

 insertions, but an original 

 window, modernized exter- 

 nally, remains in the lower 

 story on the south side, and 

 in the third stage on three 

 sides are the now blocked 

 upper windows of the old 

 tower.* On the west face of 

 the third stage is a large 

 sun-dial in a square stone 

 panel, probably placed in 

 this position so that it could 

 be seen from the Hall.' 

 The tower arch is pointed 

 and of two square orders 

 on hollow-chamfered im- 

 posts. Above it are the royal 

 arms of the Stuart sovereigns. 



The font is of 1 5th-century date, with octagonal 

 panelled bowl and stem: it has a pyramidal oak cover. 

 The oak pulpit was presented by Thomas Rocke* in 

 the latter part of the 17th century, and is hexagonal in 

 shape with panelled sides and tester, richly carved. 



In the south chapel is an elaborate marble monument 

 to William Thursby (d. 1700), with statue by Samuel 

 Cox, and tablets to J. Harvey Thursby (d. 1798) and 

 his wife (name not stated), and in the north chapel 

 monuments to Downhall Thursby (d. 1706) and 

 Richard Thursby (d. 1736). The table tomb of Sir 

 Edmund Hampden (d. 1627) in this chapel (vestry) 

 is now boarded over. On the south of the chancel is a 

 floor-slab, removed in 19 18 from the north side, with 

 the remains of a fine brass in memory of William Mayle 

 (d. 1536) and Margaret his wife (d. 1567), which 

 formerly had figures of husband and wife, ten sons, 

 and three daughters. The daughters alone are left, the 

 rest of the figures having been stripped from the 

 matrices.' There are mural monuments in the chancel 



121 Cent. 



LATE 



131 Cent 



■ 141 Cent. 



■ 151 Cent 



111823 AND 



SUBSEQUENT 



' Baker, op. cit. 



^ Baker says that the north chapel was 

 originally separated from the chancel by 

 two arches on a pillar similar to those of the 

 nave but lower. 



^ Discovered during the incumbency of 

 the Rev. L. H. Loyd (1869-77). 



* Those on the north and east are 



round-headed, that on the south pointed. 

 In an opening in the second stage, south 

 side, a lintel with the date 1673 has been 

 inserted. 



5 It is of 18th-century date, but the 

 painted numerals have disappeared. 



^ Thomas Rocke was clerk to William 

 Thursby, with whom he lived for upwards 



of forty years. He died in 1715. There is 

 a tablet to him in the church. 



7 The brasses were there in Bridges* 

 time (op. cit. i, 403, where the inscription 

 is given). Other monuments mentioned by 

 Bridges have disappeared, as well as a con- 

 siderable amount of painted glass. 



68 



