SPELHOE HUNDRED 



MOULTON 



Moulton from the Grimbalds' and other benefactors, 

 among whom were William son of Roger and Master 

 William of Cogenhoe, who granted the priory J virgate 

 of land^ and Alexander of Moulton who gave it I vir- 

 gate of land which he held from his lord, Simon le Bret, 

 at a rent of I2<2'.' In izgi the value of the estate in 

 rents was £;i it. \ti. and \s. in lands.* In 1443 the rents 

 of assize came to £2 i\s. 51/., s and they were afterwards 

 farmed out to Thomas Chipsey for a term of years of 

 which there were still four remaining in 1535* In 

 1538 the priory surrendered to the king,' and part of 

 the lands, in the tenure of Thomas Chipsey, was given 

 in I 543 to Richard Andrews,* after which date there is 

 no further record of this property. 



A small estate here was owned by Owston Priory, 

 Leicestershire, founded by Robert Grimbald before 

 1 1 53 and endowed by him with lands in Moulton' 

 which in the 1 3th century were assessed at 5/.'° 



Other lands in Moulton held by Fineshade Priory 

 were granted to it by Richard Engaine the elder who 

 founded the priory at the beginning of John's reign." 

 His descendants augmented his benefactions,'- and the 

 value of the priory's property here in 129! was £2 2s. 

 ayear,'^ but in I 535 was said to be £1 only.'* After the 

 Dissolution in 1540 these lands were confirmed to 

 Thomas Locke who held them on a £'^0 years' lease 

 from the priory;" but in 154; they were granted to 

 John Beller>', Edward Bales, and their heirs,'* after 

 which date all trace of them is lost. 



There is a mill mentioned in the Survey of 1086 on 

 the estate held by William Engaine, which rendered iJ. 

 yearly," and in 1248 was valued at 20/.'' By 1296 2 

 water-mills are found attached to Moulton Manor, 

 which with the fishing of the ponds were worth 40X." 

 These mills passed to Idonea de Leyburn, on whose 

 death in 1334 they were in a bad state. ^^ Probably one 

 of them was bestowed by the Bassets or Beauchamps on 

 St. Andrew's Priory, as in 1443 the prior demised to 

 William Cook of Hannington for his life, at an annual 

 rent of 2/., the site of a long mill situated in the 

 fields between Holcot and Moulton, together with 

 Westmylne holm.^' In 1551 Elizabeth, afterwards 

 Queen of England, obtained a grant of a water-mill in 

 Moulton for the term of her life,^^ and James I in 1609 

 granted to Edward Ferrers and Francis Phelipps a 

 water-mill and horse-mill with the mansion house and 

 meadow in Northmeade adjoining the mills, at a rent 

 of^i I 5/. 4^.'^ This fee-farm rent was sold to William 

 Deacon in i65o^''and followsthedescent of the fee-farm 

 rent of the manor (q.v.). In 1706, John Saunderson 

 was in possession of a windmill and a water grist-mill 

 in Moulton;-' and there is a mill at the present day 

 situated in the small stream which divides this parish 

 from Boughton. 



The church oi ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL con- 

 sists of chancel, 27 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 3 in., with north 

 and south chapels; clerestoried nave, 45 ft. 3 in. by 



20 ft. 4 in., with north and south aisles continuous 

 with the chancel chapels; south porch, and west 

 tower, 12 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 3 in., all these 

 CHURCH measurements being internal. The north 

 aisle is 1 5 ft. wide and the south aisle 

 16 ft. 7 in., the total width across nave and aisles being 

 56 ft. 6 in. The chapels extend almost the whole length 

 of the chancel, the east end of which projects beyond 

 them about 3 ft. 



The building is of rubble throughout, except the 

 upper story of the tower, and internally all the plaster 

 has been removed. The roofs are modern and covered 

 with lead, that of the nave high-pitched, the others low, 

 and all behind plain parapets. 



When the church was restored in 1885-6 a portion 

 of a carved pre-Conquest cross-shaft^* was found below 

 one of the piers of the south arcade, and is now placed in 

 the chapel south of the chancel arch. Though this 

 implies a burial ground and church of some kind on the 

 site, it is probable that the first stone building was the 

 12th-century aisleless structure, some portion of which 

 survives in the north wall of the nave. Two pieces of 

 12th-century ornament are built into the west wall of 

 the south aisle and the south wall west of the porch, and 

 the head-' of a semicircular window remains above the 

 second arch from the east of the nave arcade. 



About c. 1180-90, a very plain arcade of four 

 rounded arches of two unmoulded orders was cut 

 through the north wall of the nave and an aisle added on 

 that side. The arches are without hood-moulds and 

 spring from piers consisting of four half-rounds against 

 a square centre, with divided plain bell capitals and 

 square abaci, on chamfered bases of cross plan, and from 

 responds of the same character. 



The south arcade is probably part of a very extensive 

 rebuilding of the church which took place soon after 

 1298, in which year the Bishop of Lincoln ordered the 

 inhabitants to rebuild 'the church, tower, and church- 

 yard' which are described as being 'miserably in ruins'. 

 A tower, therefore, must have been added before this 

 time and enough evidence still remains to suggest that 

 the church had been considerably enlarged during the 

 13th century. The existing fabric, however, is in the 

 main the reconstructed church off. 1300, with subse- 

 quent alterations. The rebuilding no doubt included 

 the erection of the south aisle, which appears to be con- 

 temporary with the arcade, followed by the widening of 

 the north aisle and chapel, beginning at the west end 

 (with a slight break near the north doorway), the build- 

 ing of the tower, and the reconstruction of the chancel 

 and south chapel in their present form. The clerestory 

 and porch appear to be additions later in the century, 

 while early in the i 5 th-century the tower was heightened 

 by the addition of an upper stage in dressed stone, with 

 short lead-covered «ooden spire, and new windows 

 were inserted, or old ones altered, in the aisles and 

 chancel. The spire was pulled down in the time of the 



' Cott. MS. Vcjp. E. xvii, fols. i d., 

 43 d., 46 d., 47, 47 d., 49. 



' Ibid. fols. 44, 45. 



» Ibid. foU. 45 d., 46 ; Feet of F. North- 

 ants. 3 Hen. Ill, no. 61. 



* Pope Nick. Tax. (Rcc. Com.), 35. 



> Mins. Accts. bdle. 1 108, no. 21. 



* f^alor Ecclti. (Rec. Com.), iv, 3 i 3. 



' Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 29 Hen. 

 VIII; Z,. and P. Urn. yill, liii (l). 404. 



* Ibid. XI, 221 ; Chin. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), 

 Itiiii, 65. 



> Uugdale, Mm. vi, 922, seq. 



'» Cott. MS. Nero D. i, fol. 184; Po[>t 

 Sick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 55. 

 " r.C.H. Northantt. ii, 135. 

 " Ibid. 



" Pope Nick. Tax. (Rcc. Com.), 55. 

 '* yalor F.cclei. (Rec. Com.), iv, 296. 

 " L. and P. Hen. rill. xv, p. 564. 

 "" Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. «iv, m. 34. 

 " f-'.C.H. Aorikait:!. i, 335. 

 '• Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Hen. Ill, no. 70. 

 " Ibid. 25 Kdw. I, no. 50 (<i). 

 '° Ibid. 8 F.dw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 66. 

 " Harl. Chart.44H. 35. 



" Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. iii, m. 1 1. 



" Ibid. 7 Jas. I, pt. ziv, m. 13. 



'* Aug. Off. Deeds of sale of Common- 

 wealth, bdle. D i, 1 16. 



^' Recov. R. Mich. 5 Anne, m. 200. 



" y.C.II.Aorikanti.ii, i^y.Auoc.irch. 

 Soc. Reports, >ix, 414 (fig. 411). It is of 

 oolite, 26 in. long, tapering from 18 in. by 

 9 in. to 16 in. by 8 in. On the front are two 

 panels, the upper containing a beast with 

 paw upraised biting its tail, the lower with 

 knot-work : the sides have knot-work only. 



" Consisting of fifteen voussoirs. 



91 



