A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



south side 48 ft. by 20 ft. The vestry is east of the 

 north chapel. The small transeptal chapel fills the space 

 between the south porch and the Lady Chapel. The 

 width across nave and aisles in 57 ft. 9 in. 



The south doorway is all that is left of a church of 

 the late 12th century which probably was aisleless and 

 with a small square-ended chancel. The tower was 

 begun c. 1280, but it and the spire were not completed 

 till about twenty years later. The rebuilding of the 

 nave, with north and south aisles, seems to have begun 

 from the west end after the tower was finished c. 1300, 

 both arcades being of that period, and was followed by 

 the building of the chancel on its present plan, the east 

 window of which, c. 1 3 10, remains unaltered. The 

 existence of chapels north and south of the chancel is 

 shown by the west respond of an early- 14th-century 

 south arcade and the arch between the north chapel and 

 nave aisle. The north aisle seems to have been widened 

 later in the century and north and south porches added, 

 the plan of the church then to a great extent assuming 

 its present shape. By an arbitration of 1383-4 the 

 abbot and convent of Croyland engaged to rebuild the 

 chancel. The work was probably begun soon after; it 

 comprised new chancel arcades and the rebuilding of 

 both chapels on their present plan, that on the south 

 side being increased in length,' but the east wall 

 remained unaltered. New windows appear to have 

 been inserted in the north aisle about this time, and 

 shortly after, perhaps c. 1420-30, the south aisle west 

 of the porch seems to have been rebuilt on the old 

 foundation and the chapel erected to the east of it.^ 

 Late in the l 5th century the church was new roofed, 

 the chancel roof being then raised and the clerestory 

 windows altered. The vestry is an enlarged rebuilding 

 in modern times of a two-story 14th-century sacristy 

 in the same position, the steps to the upper chamber of 

 which remain. Some rebuilding on the south side of 

 the church appears to have taken place in 1530,^ and 

 possibly some of the existing ashlar facing is of this 

 period. In 1 8 1 5 the church was uniformly paved,^ and 

 in 1 861 underwent an extensive restoration when 

 galleries on three sides erected in the previous century 

 were removed' and the nave and aisles newly seated. 

 The Lady Chapel was restored in 1907. The nave 

 arcades were rebuilt in 1930. 



With the exception of the tower the older parts of 

 the building are of local ironstone, but the later work 

 is faced with freestone, and the roofs are leaded and of 

 low pitch. The lead of the nave roof overhangs, and the 

 south porch has a plain parapet, but elsewhere the 

 parapets are battlemented and of freestone. 



The chancel has an east window of five lights, with 

 moulded jambs and muUions and geometrical tracery, 

 the circular centrepiece of which consists of three tre- 

 foiled triangles with the intervening spaces filled with 

 ogee trefoils: the hollow moulding round the opening 

 is enriched with sculptured animal figures and foliage. 



and the hood-mould terminates in a finial which serves 

 to support the pedestal of a canopied niche breaking 

 the battlement. The boldly carved symbols of the 

 four evangelists are placed at the corners of the square 

 of the window, the two upper, those of St. John and 

 St. Matthew, serving as stops to the hood-mould.* On 

 the south side the chancel stands free of the Lady 

 Chapel by a bay and has an inserted three-light window 

 similar to those of the chapels, but on the north its 

 east end is covered by the vestry, the doorway to which 

 is original. There are no sedilia or piscina, but there 

 is an aumbry in the north wall. The chancel arcades 

 consist of three arches on the north side and four on 

 the south, all of two moulded orders on piers of four 

 attached shafts with hollows between, on high phnths, 

 the shafts having separate moulded capitals and bases. 

 The responds are single attached shafts with the outer, 

 wave-moulded, order carried to the ground on each side. 

 The west respond in the south side is built in front of 

 the respond of the early- 14th-century arcade, which is 

 of two hollow-chamfered orders with moulded capital, 

 visible only from the chapel. The chancel arch is 

 contemporary with and of the same detail as the north 

 and south arcades, as is also the arch at the west end 

 of the south chapel. The 14th-century arch between 

 the north chapel and nave aisle is of two hollow-cham- 

 fered orders on half-octagonal responds with moulded 

 capitals and bases. The chancel arcades are filled with 

 good 15th-century oak screens: the rood-screen and 

 loft and the screens at the west ends of the chapels are 

 modern.' In the chancel are six return stalls, three on 

 each side of the screen doorway, with carved miseri- 

 cords, the subjects of which are: north side, (l) ale-wife 

 and customer, (2) eagle, (3) two lions; south side, 

 (4) wood-carver at work, (5) mermaid, (6) fox and 

 goose. The supporters are roses, eagles, lions, foliage, 

 dolphins, and balls of foliage. The date of the stalls 

 is fixed within a few years by the arms of White which 

 occur on one of the elbows, John White having been 

 rector 1361-92.* 



The chancel has a good I jth-century roof of five 

 bays with moulded principals, but the corbels of the 

 earlier high-pitched roof remain. The roofs of the 

 chapels, of three and four bays respectively, are equally 

 good, with moulded beams and carved bosses: they 

 have been recently restored. 



The south chapel has an east window of five lights, 

 but with this exception the windows of both chapels 

 are lofty openings of three cinquefoiled lights with 

 vertical tracery of two stages divided by a battlemented 

 transom." They are evenly spaced with intervening 

 and diagonal angle buttresses. In the south chapel is 

 a piscina and the altar rails are those formerly in the 

 chancel. 



The early-i4th-century nave arcades are of four 

 bays with pointed arches of two hollow-chamfered 

 orders on octagonal piers of ironstone with moulded 



' Its cast wall is built against a buttress 

 of the chancel. 



2 The order in which the later work in 

 the building took shape is difficult to fix 

 with certainty, but the south chapel is 

 obviously a filling in of the space between 

 the porch and the Lady Chapel, though its 

 character is little different from those of 

 the rebuilt chancel. 



3 Robert Hanyet in his will (1530) left 

 'to the making of the south side of the 

 church so much money as shall glaze the 

 middle window* : Arch. your. Ixx, 4.3 1 . 



■* Cole, Hisl. of ffellingtorougi, 285. 



5 There were two galleries at the west 

 end, 'one receding from Sc rising above the 

 other' : ibid. 5 1 . A gallery was first erected 

 in 1682, and in 1724 a new one was built 

 in 'the north-west corner of the body of 

 the church'. 



^ Sharpc, Decorated h'indoiv Tracery., 

 plate 35. The total height of the opening 

 is 16 ft. 6 in. and its width 9 ft. 10 in. 

 The mouldings of the tracery are of two 

 orders. 'Perhaps no window can be more 



advantageously selected as marking the 

 termination of the geometrical period and 

 the commencement of the next as this 

 example' : ibid. 79. 



' "The rood-screen, loft, and rood with 

 attendant figures date from 19 1 7. 



8 A'orMaw/j. A'. Sfg. vi, 33. The stalls 

 were then (1896) on the north and south 

 sides. The figure of a carver at work also 

 occurs at Great Doddington. 



' The jambs and mullions of the win- 

 dows are moulded. 



142 



