HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED 



WILBY 



Doddington (q.v.); between 1624 and 1656 it was 

 conveyed to the Pentlow family. In 1641 Thomas 

 Pentlow, then a resident in Wilby, was arrested and 

 committed to the Fleet.' At his death in 1656 he was 

 lord of the manor. ^ He was succeeded by his son 

 William Pentlow,' who about 1 706 alienated the manor 

 to John Freeman,'* whose widow was lady of the manor 

 in 1 7 19. After the death ofthis lady the manor descended 

 to her daughters,^ and in 1788 was in the possession of 

 Hannah Freeman wife of William Pearson, who in the 

 same year alienated a moiety of it to Anne Jcrson, 

 Abraham Bracebridge, and others.* The whole of 

 this manor subsequently passed to Adam Corrie, the 

 holder in 1801.'' He was succeeded by John Corrie, 

 whose successor at the present day is Arthur Corrie 

 Keep. 



Richard de Wilby had a mill in Wilby in 1245 by 

 grant of Michael de Wilby and his wife Margaret.* 

 In 1276 Maud widow of William de Wilby claimed a 

 mill in dower.' No further mention has been found of 

 a mill until 1702 when William Pentlow held a water- 

 mill with the manor." 



The church of ST. MART THE 

 CHURCH riRGIN consists of chancel, 23 ft. 6 in. 

 by 1 8 ft. 6 in., with north vestry and organ- 

 chamber; clerestoried nave, 40 ft. 6 in. by 19 ft. 6 in.; 

 south aisle, 9 ft. 6 in. wide; south porch and west tower 

 with spire, 10 ft. 6 in. square, all these measurements 

 being internal. There was formerly a north aisle, but it 

 was removed in 1839 and has not been rebuilt." 



No portion of the existing fabric appears to be older 

 than the 13th century.'^ The church of this period 

 seems to have been an aislcless building, of which little 

 remains but a low-side window in the chancel and per- 

 haps part of the wall above the arches of the south 

 arcade. About 1310-20 the aisles were added, and the 

 chancel seems to have been remodelled, or perhaps re- 

 built. The tower was added later in the 14th century, 

 and the clerestory appears to have been erected a 

 century or more later, but the present wooden windows 

 are of comparatively recent date. The chancel, which 

 at some period had been reduced in length by about 

 12 ft.," was almost entirely rebuilt in 1853 on its then 

 existing plan, with blank north wall, and the roof 

 restored to its original pitch.'* A vestry and organ- 

 chamber were added in 1873, but were rebuilt in their 

 present form in 191 3. When the north aisle was taken 

 down, its arcade was removed and a new wall with 

 modern windows built in its place. There was a general 

 restoration of the fabric in 1879. 



As rebuilt, the chancel contains little or no ancient 

 work except the low-side window at the west end of the 

 south wall, which is a plain lancet of two hollow 

 chamfers separated by a fiat member, with hood-mould 

 and rear arch." A considerable amount of the old 

 masonry appears to have been used in the external 

 facings, but the three-light east window, and one of two 



lights in the south wall, together with the priest's door- 

 way and the piscina and sedilia are modern.'* The high- 

 pitched roof is leaded. Originally the chancel was of 

 two equal bays, but about two-thirds of the eastern bay 

 was removed, with the result that the dividing buttress 

 is now only about 6 ft. from the east end. The 14th- 

 century chancel arch is of two hollow-chamfered orders 

 without hood-mould, the inner order on half-round 

 responds with moulded capitals and bases. There are 

 remains of the rood-loft stair at the north end. Below 

 the arch is a modern oak screen (1923). On the north 

 side the chancel is open to the vestry and organ-chamber 

 by an arcade of two arches erected in 191 3." 



The early- 14th-century nave arcade is of four bays 

 with arches of two hollow-chamfered orders on 

 octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases and 

 half-round responds carrj'ing the inner order: they 

 have hood-moulds on each side and each hollow has 

 a rounded stop above the capital. The piers stand 

 on square plinths of rough masonry, probably portions 

 of the original outer wall through which the arches 

 were cut. 



The aisle has diagonal angle buttresses, plain parapet, 

 and lean-to leaded roof, and there are strings at sill level 

 within and without. The east window and two in the 

 south wall east of the porch are of the 14th century, 

 the former pointed and of three cinquefoiled lights with 

 cusped intersecting tracery, and the latter square-headed 

 of two trefoiled lights. A similar two-light window 

 west of the porch is modern, and the west wall is blank. 

 A trefoiled piscina with fluted bowl remains in the 

 usual position at the east end of the aisle. The doorway 

 is in the second bay from the west and is of two con- 

 tinuous hollow-chamfered orders with hood-mould: the 

 outer doorway of the porch is of two rounded orders. 

 The porch has diagonal buttresses and high-pitched 

 gable with modern apex cross: in the west wall is a 

 single pointed window and in the east wall a modern 

 quatrefoil opening. 



The clerestory windows occur on the south side only 

 and are square-headed and of two uncusped lights: the 

 low-pitched leaded roof is modern and without parapets. 

 Internally all the walls are plastered. 



The tower is faced with ashlar and is of unusual de- 

 sign, consisting of two square lower stages with moulded 

 plinth and diagonal angle buttresses, an octagonal bell- 

 chamber stage, or drum, the cardinal faces of which are 

 in the same plane as the walls beneath, and a low stone 

 spire rising from behind a parapet of pierced quatrefoils. 

 The diagonal buttresses are carried up as pinnacles and 

 from these pierced flying buttresses are thrown to the 

 canted faces of the octagon, the angles of which are 

 covered by flat buttresses carried up in their turn as 

 pinnacles and connected to the spire by a second tier of 

 flying buttresses. The junction of the square and 

 octagonal stages is masked at the angles by a parapet of 

 pierced quatrefoils, and the four bell-chamber windows 



' Hiti. MSS. Com. iv, in. 



' Monumental Inscription cited by 

 Bridges, l^orthantt. ii, i 56. 



^ Metcalfe, A'////. MrMjn/i. 125. 



< Bridges, Northanli. ii, 155 



s Ibid. 



» Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 28 Ceo. III. 



' Priv. and Loc. Act, 41 Ceo. Ill, 

 cap. 170. 



• Feet of F. Northants. 30 Hen. III. 



« De Banco R. Trin. 4 Edw. I, m. 13. 

 " Rccov. R. East, i Anne, r. 19. 

 ' ■ Bridges gives the width across the nave 



and aisles as 43 ft. 9 in.: op. cit. ii, i;5; 

 the old north aisle was thus the same width 

 as the south. 



'» R. and J. A. Brandon {Pariih Churchtt, 

 88) record a voussoir with chevron orna- 

 ment as then (1848) built into the north 

 wall of the chancel. 



" The chancel is shown of its present 

 length in Brandon's plan of the church in 

 1848: ibid. 88. 



'* Brandon in 1848 describes the roof as 

 having been 50 much lowered that 'the 

 upper part of the chancel arch now appears 



above the roof of the chancel ind is filled 

 with glass*. 



" Atsoc. Arch. Soc. Rtf>orti, xxix, 456. 

 The window is 3 ft. 4 in. high by 16 in. 

 wide, and the sill is 2 ft. 8 in. above the 

 floor. Internally the string-course which 

 runs round the chancel is raised to form a 

 hood-mould. The window was opened out 

 and glazed in 1908. 



" They arc in the style of the 14th cen- 

 tury and may reproduce ancient featurc<; 

 the srdtlia are double. 



" Designed by Mr. Temple Moore. 



147 



