HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED earls barton 



The site has been already described.' The building 

 consists of chancel, 43 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 9 in.;^ clere- 

 storied nave, 51 ft. by 22 ft.; north and south aisles, 

 respectively 12 ft. 9 in. and 13 ft. wide; south porch, 

 and west tower, 14 ft. 9 in. by 15 ft. 9 in.,' all these 

 measurements being internal. The width across the 

 nave and aisles is 53 ft. There is a small modern organ- 

 chamber on the north side of the chancel. 



The church is of exceptional interest as possessing a 

 late Saxon tower which is generally agreed to be both 

 the finest existing specimen of pre-Conquest work'* and 

 the most noteworthy architectural monument of its 

 period in England,^ as well as features ranging from the 

 1 2th to the I 5th centuries. The tower alone is earlier 



roof, and the nave and aisles roofs of low pitch, all 

 leaded. 



The tower is of four unequal stages and is 68 ft. 8 in. 

 in height to the top of the modern battlemented para- 

 pet, with an external width on the west face of 24 ft. 

 The walls are about 4 ft. thick above a simple square 

 plinth, but decrease as they ascend to 2 ft. 6 in. at the 

 bell-chamber stage by a scries of set-offs. The stages, or 

 horizontal divisions, are marked by string-courses, of 

 which the first has a hollow chamfer, the other two 

 being square in section, and the quoins show pro- 

 nounced long-and-short work. The faces of the walling 

 are enriched by pilaster strips about 4 in. in width, 

 between which the rubble is plastered, the strips being 



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Scale of Feet 

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Plan of Earls Barton Church 



than the Conquest, but the quoins of an aisleless early 

 1 2th-century nave remain at the two eastern angles and 

 less perfectly at the west end, while the south doorway 

 is off. 1 180, but was rebuilt when the south aisle was 

 made. The 12th-century chancel was lengthened and 

 altered c. 1250, and about the same time aisles were 

 added to the nave, the south aisle being the earlier. 

 The north arcade is of c. 1 290-1 300, but both aisles 

 were altered in the 14th century, when the arches of the 

 nave arcades seem to have been reconstructed and a 

 new chancel arch erected upon the 12th-century jambs; 

 the outer walls of the north aisle were entirely rebuilt 

 and new windows inserted in the chancel and south 

 aisle. Other windows were made in the chancel in the 

 1 5th century and the clerestory was added. The build- 

 ing was restored in 1868-70, when the roofs'" were 

 renewed, a west gallery removed, the porch rebuilt, and 

 the organ-chamber added.' 



The walls arc of rubble, plastered internally, with 

 plain ashlar parapets; the chancel has a high-pitched 



joined by round arches at the bottom of the second 

 stage, and by diagonal bands of strip work forming 

 straight-sided arches in the third stage. The eastern 

 quoins are as marked as the western and are completed 

 down to the ground, the 12th-century nave being built 

 up against them. It is therefore possible that the ground 

 story of the tower formed the body, or main interior 

 division, of the original church, and had a narrower, 

 square-ended chancel on the eastern side, but there is 

 no indication of a western adjunct' as at Barton-on- 

 Humber. Unfortunately, at Earls Barton the eastern 

 arch opening to the nave was altered and widened later, 

 and its original form lost. Whatever the nature of the 

 eastern limb, however, its roof was of high pitch, the 

 apex of the gable reaching to the lower part of the third 

 stage of the tower, where its marks still remain. 



The west doorway has a semicircular moulded' 

 head, which on the exterior is cut out of two stones, 

 but internally the whole head is formed of a single 

 block. The doorway, which is 3 ft. 3 in. wide and 



' F.C.H. Norlhatili. ii, 405, where a 

 plan is given. 



' This is the width of the older western 

 part; at the east end it is iS ft. 3 in. 

 wide. 



' The greater dimension is from north 

 to south. 



* Baldwin Brown, op. cit. i, 65. 



> Ibid, ii, zSj (ed. 1925, hereafter used}. 



' Before the restoration the roof of the 

 nave is said to have been of 15th-century 

 date. The chancel roof was 'comparatively 

 modem' and cut across the east window 

 and the chancel arch : Atsoc, Arch, Soc, 

 Repii. I, p. xiiv. 



' Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rfpts. ix, p. xcvii ; 

 X, pp. XXXV, xci; xi, p. xciv. The architect 

 in charge of the restoration was Mr. E. F, 



Law. The nave arcades were rebuilt with 

 the old material, and the external stone- 

 work and windows extensively restored. 

 The north aisle was repaired in 1877: 

 ibid, xiv, p. xli. 



* The treatment of the face of the tower 

 teems to preclude the idea. 



* Two mouldings of half-round section. 



119 



