A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The first church was an aisleless building off. i loo, 

 with nave the same size as at present and small, probably 

 square-ended, chancel. Remains of this early building 

 exist in three small round-headed windows in the north 

 and south walls of the nave over the easternmost piers 

 and on the north side of the chancel over the first pier 

 from the west. The heads only of the nave windows 

 remain, but that in the chancel is fairly perfect on what 

 was originally the outside. These openings are only 

 4 in. wide but splay out internally to 3 ft. 4 in. and 

 finish outwardly with a narrow chamfer. What remains 

 exposed of the ancient walling of the chancel is of rubble 

 with roughly laid herring-bone work.' 



About 1150-60 the north wall of the chancel was 

 pierced at its west end^ with two small semicircular 

 arches of a single unmoulded order springing from a 

 cylindrical pier and from half-round responds with 

 large scalloped capitals and moulded bases, opening 

 probably to a chapel. The nave arcades appear to have 

 been pierced a little later, c. 1 160—70, and aisles added. 

 The arcades are of three bays with semicircular arches 

 of a single unmoulded order on circular piers and half- 

 round responds, but the capitals display soffit foliage of 

 an incipient type, the square abaci are finely moulded,^ 

 and the bases show well-developed water moulding. 

 Both chancel and nave arches have large nail-head 

 hood-moulds on the inner side. 



In the latter part of the 13th century, c. 1290, the 

 south wall of the chancel was pierced with two pointed 

 double-chamfered arches,"* springing from a central 

 pier composed of four groups of triple shafts clustered 

 round an octagon, with moulded capitals and bases, and 

 from plain half-octagonal responds. The chancel was 

 lengthened at the same time, and during the first half of 

 the 14th century the aisles and chapels appear to have 

 been rebuilt and extended eastward, the chapels open- 

 ing to the chancel by broad arches, the original chancel 

 arch being taken down and a new one erected farther 

 east between the piers of the arcades and the wall 

 carried up above to form a new east end to the thus 

 extended nave.^ The clerestory was probably added at 

 this time, extending as far eastward as the new arch with 

 four windows on each side, and the south chapel is said 

 to have been widened at the time of its rebuilding.* 



The tower and spire were built late in the 14th 

 century but much altered subsequently, and about 

 1380— 1400 the chancel was again lengthened, the new 

 east end being raised above a vaulted crypt. No further 

 additions to the fabric have since been made, but the 

 alterations in the 19th century were extensive. About 

 1 8 5 1 changes were made in the east bay of the chancel, 

 a window on the south side being removed, and other 

 ancient features obliterated.' In 1863 there was a 

 restoration of the whole fabric, amounting in parts to a 

 rebuilding, the extent of which may be thus sum- 

 marized: the 14th-century chancel arch was taken 



down and a new one erected farther west in the position 

 of the original Norman arch, with a new east gable to 

 the nave above it, to which the chancel roof was ex- 

 tended; the whole of the clerestory was taken down and 

 rebuilt in its present form, the easternmost bay over the 

 west end of the chancel being removed with the 14th- 

 century chancel arch; the west arch of the north nave 

 arcade, part of the arch next to it, and the four nave 

 piers were renewed;* the south aisle and porch were 

 rebuilt, the aisle wall being then advanced in line with 

 that of the south chapel;' and the nave, aisles, and 

 chapels were newly roofed. The upper part of the 

 tower was refaced with ashlar in 1923-4. 



The roof of the chancel is of high-pitch and covered 

 with modern tiles, but the other roofs are low-pitched 

 and leaded behind plain parapets. The chapels have 

 low gables at the east end. The porch is tiled. Intern- 

 ally, with the exception of the tower, the walls are 

 plastered. 



The chancel has a modern east window of four lights 

 with vertical tracery; the diagonal buttresses are also 

 modern and the two-light window in the south wall was 

 inserted in 1901.'° The floor of the late- 14th-century 

 extension is raised four steps and its north wall is blank, 

 but in the usual position in the south wall is a good 

 contemporary piscina. Farther west is a large trefoiled 

 piscina of the late-i3th-century chancel and opposite to 

 it, at the north end of the steps, is a small trefoiled recess. 

 The two broad early- 14th-century arches opening to 

 the chapels are of two chamfered orders, west of which 

 are the earlier arcades already described. The modern 

 chancel arch is carried on corbels, but the dwarf screen 

 wall of the ritual chancel is a half-bay farther east. The 

 altar rails are of early- 17th-century date, with turned 

 balusters, but the hammer-beam roof is modern. The 

 14th-century crypt, or bone house," below the eastern 

 bay, is approached from the churchyard on the south 

 side,'^ and is i 5 ft. 6 in. square and about 10 ft. high. It 

 is vaulted in two bays each of two compartments, the 

 chamfered ribs springing from a central octagonal pier 

 and from half-octagonal responds, all with moulded 

 capitals and chamfered bases. The crypt is lighted by 

 two square-headed windows on the east and one on the 

 south. 



The east window of the south chapel is of three lights 

 with intersecting tracery,'^ and if contemporary with the 

 clustered pier on the south side of the chancel was 

 moved eastward to its present position when the chapel 

 was lengthened. The two square-headed windows of 

 the south chapel are of three trefoiled lights with 

 moulded jambs and mullions, the outer moulding being 

 enriched all round with four-leaf flowers. West of these, 

 in the modern wall of the aisle east of the porch, are 

 inserted two pointed 14th-century windows of two 

 trefoiled lights, but west of the porch the windows are 

 modern. The whole of the north wall is of the 14th 



' The walling is left exposed on the 

 north side towards the chapel : the windows 

 were discovered in 1863. 



^ It probably ex tended a bay farther east. 



3 In contrast with the chamfered abaci 

 of the chancel arcade. 



^ Or two arches, inserted at the same 

 time as those opposite, may have been re- 

 built. According to the Rev. H. L. Elliot, a 

 portion of a late- 1 1 th-century window was 

 found over the south pier of the chancel 

 as well as on the north side: Serjeantson, 

 Hist. ofCh. of St. Peter, N'tcn, 148. Mr. 

 Serjeantson's account of Kingsthorpc 



church has been used in the present de- 

 scription. 



5 Serjeantson, op. cit. 153. 



<> Ibid. 151. 



' Ibid. 154, quoting report of clerk of 

 works 1863. Before 1851 the chancel had 

 *a very ancient doorway inserted in its 

 north wall'. 



^ The arcades and clerestory walls were 

 out of the perpendicular and the west arch 

 on the north side was depressed and sunk. 



9 Serjeantson, op. cit. 155. 

 *'' The window removed from this posi- 

 tion in 1 85 1 was of three lights: the wall 



86 



was then built solid. Buttresses in the east 

 end were also removed at the same time. 



*^ When the crypt was cleared out in 

 1863 a considerable number of human 

 bones were found : clerk of works' report 

 quoted in Serjeantson, op. cit. 154. The 

 crypt is now used as a heating chamber. 



*^ There appears never to have been any 

 opening to the crypt from inside the church. 



^^ The corresponding window in the 

 north chapel is a modern copy of this, but 

 the original window may have been similar: 

 ibid. 151. 



