A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



cut nearly straight' through the wall: their arches are 

 again largely built of brick.^ 



When the aisles were removed the nave arches were 

 filled in and a doorway and windows inserted, but, 

 with the exception of that in which the south doorway 

 is built, the old fillings (with later gothic windows) 

 were taken out at the time of the restoration, and new 

 masonry inserted, containing wide round-headed 

 windows. 3 



The doorway dates from c. 1180 and has a semi- 

 circular arch of two moulded orders, the inner con- 

 tinuous and the outer on jamb-shafts with moulded 

 capitals and bases. The doorway being too wide for 

 the space in which it is set, the wall on the west side has 

 been cut into to admit it;'' until 1864 it was covered 

 by a later porch, set at an oblique angle in line with the 

 principal entrance to the churchyard on the south side. 



Excavations on both sides of the building during 

 the restoration disclosed the foundations of the aisle 

 walls, showing the aisles to have been 9 ft. wide inter- 

 nally with a square chamber at the west end of each, 

 flanking the porch, and probably one at the east end 

 on the north side. From more recent excavations it 

 appears that transverse walls originally extended across 

 the north aisle from each of the piers,' but no such 

 features have been found on the south side. 



The nave is now divided from the presbytery by 

 a wide and very flat arch of two chamfered orders 

 dying into the wall, which appears to be of late- 14th- 

 century date, but originally, as was proved by excava- 

 tion in 1 841,* there was here a screen or arcade of three 

 arches, the middle one wider than the others, which 

 were supported on two intermediate piers and by the 

 piers, or responds, which still exist as projections from 

 the north and south walls.' 



The north wall of the presbytery has two large 

 pointed three-light windows. That to the east was 

 entirely reconstructed in 1863, but the western window 

 is of the early 14th century,* and its sill cuts into the 

 brick arch of an original round-headed doorway, now 

 blocked, which led either into the open or to a sacristy 

 or similar building.' Whether there was also a chamber 

 in the corresponding position on the south side cannot 

 be known, the presbytery being here covered by the 



medieval chapel and the lower part of its wall pierced 

 by two pointed arches. Of these the easternmost is 

 the narrower, and is of three chamfered orders and 

 hood-mould towards the presbyter}', but of two orders 

 only to the chapel, the inner order springing from keel- 

 shaped responds with moulded capitals and bases: it 

 belongs to the earlier part of the 13th century, when 

 the chapel seems first to have been built or recon- 

 structed,'" but in its completed and enlarged form the 

 chapel dates from c. 1290, when the westernmost arch, 

 which is lower and wider" than the other and has 

 octagonal responds, was constructed, and the outer 

 walls rebuilt. The east window of the chapel is of 

 three lights with plain intersecting tracery and the 

 others are of two lights with forked mullions. Above 

 the arches the old wall remains, with the blocked arch 

 and upper portion of a large round-headed window, 

 which was splayed internally.'^ Over the westernmost 

 pointed arch is a contemporary single-light clerestory 

 window with trefoiled head. The chapel, as already 

 stated, formerly extended farther westward, and its 

 existing west wall is modern. In the south wall is a 

 small doorway, with plain four-centered arch, inserted 

 in the i 5th century, the west jamb of which cuts into 

 a pointed piscina recess. 



The tall semicircular chancel arch, or arch of 

 triumph, in the middle of the east wall of the presby- 

 tery, is probably in great part original," being similar in 

 construction to those of the nave arcades, but with only 

 one course (the outer) of flatways bricks. On either 

 side of it, high in the wall, is a blocked round-headed 

 window, resembling those in the clerestory', and under 

 these and partly below the present level of the floor 

 are two narrow blocked doorways, with round heads, 

 through each of which passed a flight of steps''' giving 

 access to the sunken ambulatory of the apse. In the 

 southern portion of the wall above the doorway and 

 below the window is a pointed recess, the back wall of 

 which retains some of its plaster, with traces of colour. 

 Between this and the chancel arch is the north jamb 

 of an earlier recess, probably of the 13th century.'^ 



The present apse, the floor of which is three steps 

 above that of the presbytery, with the exception of the 

 north-west part, is modern. In 1 841 excavations within 



' Ibid.: 'the aperture is wider in the 

 interior than it is outside, but the splay 

 is nothing approaching to that which is 

 seen in the ordinary internally splayed 

 lights of late Saxon and Norman times, 

 while the actual width of the external 

 aperture, which measures about 3 ft. in 

 the clear, is much greater than we gener- 

 ally find in our Saxon buildings. . . . They 

 resemble the windows of the Early Chris- 

 tian basilicas of Rome and Ravenna in 

 their openness and ample dimensions.' 



^ The windows, formerly blocked, were 

 opened out at the time of the restoration. 

 A wide pointed and chamfered relieving 

 arch was inserted, probably in the 14th 

 century, between two bays of the clere- 

 story in the inner face of the south wall, 

 probably in consequence of the weakening 

 of the wall by the insertion of a large 

 window below (since removed) in the 

 second bay of the nave from the west : 

 Arch. your. Ixix, 505. 



3 Before the restoration in 1864-6 

 three of the arches on the north side had 

 windows 'each differing from the others', 

 for one of which the original arch had 

 nearly been destroyed. On the south side 

 the easternmost arch opened to the chapel, 



but the next two had windows each of 

 three lights but different in style, one of 

 which had occasioned the destruction of 

 the original arch and the other had injured 

 the arch over it : Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rpts. 

 XX, 346. The arches were restored with 

 different material in order to distinguish 

 them, but this is not indicated on the 

 accompanying plan. 



•• The Rev. C. F. Watkins (vicar 1832- 

 73) thought the doorway had been brought 

 from the east end of the church. His 

 account in The Basilica (1867) is not clear 

 but appears to mean that he found traces 

 of a Norman chapel preceding the existing 

 13th-century chapel on the south side in 

 which this doorway may have been : Assoc. 

 Arch. Soc. Rpts. XX, 346. 



5 'It may have been intended to build 

 transverse arches across the aisle, for 

 which sleeper walls were prepared, but 

 there is no indication of any such arches 

 or of any transverse partitions above the 

 foundations' : Arch. your. Ixix, 506. 



^ The transverse sleeper wall was dis- 

 covered, as well as the bases of the piers, 

 which appear to have been thick pieces of 

 wall like the piers of the nave : Arch, 

 your. Ixix, 506. 



7 Baldwin Brown, op. cit. ii, no. 

 ^ It is said to have been on the south 

 side of the nave until 1863. 



^ Baldwin Brown, op. cit. ii, no. The 

 doorway is 3 ft. wide, and is just on the 

 eastern side of the projecting pier, or jamb, 

 of the dividing arch. 



"> A portion of the base course of the east 

 wall suggests that the chapel was formed 

 by the enlargement of a 12th-century 

 addition to the church on this side: Arch, 

 your. Ixix, 507. 



" Its width is 14 ft.; that of the eastern- 

 most arch is 8 ft. 10 in. 



" Arch. your. Ixix, 506. 



^3 It is 10 ft. wide and springs at a 

 height of 16 ft. 4 in. above the presbytery 

 floor. The jambs had been mutilated for 

 the insertion of a screen, but are now 

 rebuilt : Sir Henry Dryden, 'On the chancel 

 of Brixworth Church', in Assoc. Arch. Soc. 

 Rpts. XX, 348 (1890). 



*■♦ The arches spring at a height of about 

 I ft. 10 in. above the present floor level j 

 the steps must therefore have begun 5 ft. 

 or more in the presbytery: ibid. 350. 



'5 Arch. your. Ixix, 507. Its south 

 jamb was destroyed when the later recess 

 was made. 



154 



