HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED earls barton 



13th-century work; it has a keel-shaped hood-mould 

 and roll-moulded jambs. 



The added portion of the chancel, about 20 ft. in 

 length, has coupled angle buttresses, moulded plinth, 

 and keel-shaped string-course at sill level,' the latter 

 continued westward on the south side. The east win- 

 dow is of three grouped lancets with shafted mullions, 

 moulded jambs,^ and separate hood-moulds, and in the 

 gable above is a sexfoil opening with continuous label. 

 At the east end of the north wall is a single widely 

 splayed lancet, but all the other windows in the chancel 

 are insertions of 14th- and 15th-century date, each of 

 two lights, that at the east end of the south wall being 

 four-centred, the others square-headed. Below the 

 modern parapet is a hollow string-course, apparently 

 contemporary with the 14th-century windows. Intern- 

 ally, the keel-shaped string is repeated all round the 

 1 3th-century extension, but the wall below has modern 

 panelling at the east end with a return on each side. 

 The trefoiled piscina has a fluted projecting bowl and 

 stone shelf and the triple stepped sedilia, as already 

 stated, are made up from the displaced Norman wall 

 arcade, with round chevron arches and shafts with 

 cushion capitals.^ 



The 1 3th-century south arcade of the nave consists 

 of three pointed arches of two chamfered orders, with 

 hood-mould on one side, springing from octagonal piers 

 with moulded capitals and bases, and from keel-shaped 

 responds. The bases stand on square plinths of masonry 

 probably portions of the 12th-century wall through 

 which the arcade was cut. There is a keel-shaped string 

 all round the aisle inside and out, and the shallow but- 

 tresses are contemporary with the walling, but all the 

 windows are 14th-century insertions, with ogee heads 

 and, except at the east end, of two trefoiled lights with 

 elongated quatrefoil in the head; the east window is of 

 three lights with reticulated tracery, and its sill is 

 dropped inside as a reredos for the aisle altar. To the 

 north of it is a rectangular aumbry, and in the south wall 

 a trefoiled moulded piscina with plain circular bowl. 



The later north arcade is also of three bays, with 

 arches of two sunk-chamfered orders divided by a case- 

 ment, springing from clustered piers consisting of four 

 half-round shafts with small intervening rolls, and four 

 responds of similar section, all with moulded capitals 

 and bases. The north aisle walls were wholly rebuilt 

 in the 14th century and have angle buttresses of two 

 stages and a moulded string-course at sill level inside 

 and out. The windows are of similar t}'pe to those in 

 the south aisle, with moulded rear arches, and the door- 

 way has a continuous moulding of three members. On 

 the south side of the east window is an image-bracket 

 with carved head and on the north another formed from 

 a 13th-century capital, but no ritual arrangements have 

 survived. In the north wall is a locker for a proces- 

 sional cross. 



There are four square-headed clerestory windows of 

 two trefoiled lights on each side. The porch has been 



rebuilt on the old lines, much of the old masonry being 

 re-used; the outer arch is of two orders on clustered 

 shafts with moulded capitals and bases which are 14th- 

 century work much restored. The side windows are 

 modern. 



The 15th-century traceried rood-screen has been 

 much restored and painted;* it has two subdivided 

 openings on each side of the doorway and plain lower 

 panels with traceried heads, carved rail and cornice, and 

 vaulted cover. There is a modern rood with three 

 figures. 



The hexagonal dark oak Jacobean pulpit has five of 

 its sides elaborately panelled in two tiers, the lower 

 arched, the upper oblong; it stands on a modern stone 

 base. The font dates from 1877 and is in the 1 3th-cen- 

 tury style. There is a plain oak chest with the marks 

 of three locks, and the royal arms of one of the 

 Hanoverian Georges are over the tower arch. The 

 seating and fittings are all modern. 



The brass of John Muscote (d. 1512) and Alice his 

 wife, formerly in the floor of the nave, is now on the 

 south jamb of the tower arch. The figures of the man 

 and wife and one of the evangelists' symbols' remain, 

 but the other symbols, the inscription, and the figures 

 of four sons and twelve daughters are gone.* 



In the church are preserved two quarries of glass 

 from the old vicarage, with scratched inscriptions 

 recording the marriage of Thomas Gery Bennet,^ 

 13 June 1745, ^"'i the birth of his son Thomas, 

 25 March 1748. 



There are mural tablets, from 1790, to members of 

 the Whitworth family, and on the outside of the south 

 wall of the chancel is a memorial to James Harris, who 

 died in 1605 aged 93, inscribed 'Tlie loss of friends is 

 much, the losse of time is more. The losse of Christ is 

 much more worse, which no man can restore.' 



There is a ring of eight bells, the treble, second, and 

 fourth dated 1720, the third by Edward Arnold of 

 St. Neots 1775, and the tenor by Thomas Eayre of 

 Kettering 1761.' The former fifth was recast and 

 increased in weight, becoming the seventh, in 1935, 

 when two new bells were given by the Barron Bell 

 Trust, inscribed 'In the year of the King's Silver 

 Jubilee'. All the bells were then rehung in a new oak 

 frame.' 



The plate is all modern and comprises a silver cup, 

 paten, flagon, bread-holder, and alms dish of 1 8 14, the 

 first four given by Elizabeth Whitworth, spinster, in 

 that year. There is also a pewter flagon. The alms dish 

 was made from 'a silver cup with cover of silver' which 

 is mentioned in 1647, and may have been Eliza- 

 bethan.'" 



The registers before 1 8 1 2 are as follows: (i) baptisms 

 I 558-1686, 1691-2, 1705-28," marriages 1559-68, 

 1579-87, I 591-1678, 1705-25, burials i 558-1678, 

 1682-85, 1705-28; (ii) baptisms 1730-69, 1770-5, 

 1777-83, marriages 1730-53, burials 1730--67, 1770- 

 2, 1777-83; (iii) baptisms 1784-1812, burials 1789- 



' At .1 bright of 8 ft. above the ground. 



' Internally the jambs as wcU as the 

 mullions are shafted and have moulded 

 capitals and bases ; the rear arch is moulded. 



' The middle arch alone is perfect; the 

 eastern arch was replaced by a 15th-cen- 

 tury head when the window above was 

 inserted. 



♦ The west side of the screen was 

 decorated, the lower panels being painted 

 with hgurcs of saints unconventionally 



treated, by Mr. Henry Bird in 1935. 

 5 That of St. Matthew. 



* The brass was originally at the west 

 end of the nave. It was moved to its 

 present position in 1905. The inscription 

 is given in Bridges, Hiit. of NortAantt. ii, 



'39- 



' Vicar 1745-87. 



• North, CA. Belli of Norlkantt. 25+, 

 where the inscriptions arc given. The 

 fifth is by Henry Pcnn of Peterborough, 



who probably cast the others of the same 

 date. When Bridges wrote there were 

 five bells, the second inscribed 'Robertus 

 Skalis quondam vicarius de Lokington 

 dedit hanc campanam' : op. cit. ii, 1 38. 

 » Horlhampton Mercury, 5 Apr. 1935. 



'° Markham, Ch. Plalc of Northjnli. 

 106. 



" One entry each year in 1687, 1689, 

 1696, 1697, 1700, 1701, and 1702. 



IV 



121 



