A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



was largely used," and the tower was erected with a 

 stairway built against its western face to afford easy 

 access to the upper chambers. A low round-headed 

 doorway to the stair, on the ground floor, was made 

 within the opening of the lofty arch of the original 

 entrance, which was now filled in, and to this period 

 also belongs the large triple opening in the west wall of 

 the nave, composed of three narrow arches turned in 

 brick, and divided by large baluster shafts, forming a 

 window in the first floor of the tower. The fact that 

 this triple opening cuts into the head of the arch of the 

 (blocked) upper doorway to the porch chamber is 

 sufficient indication, apart from the character of the 

 work itself, that the opening is of later date than the 



coursing occurs in the turret and in the south wall of 

 the tower, and similar coursing is found on the inside 

 of the east and west walls on the first floor. 



The 14th-century bell-chamber windows are of two 

 trefoiled lights with elongated quatrefoil in the head 

 and ogee-shaped hood-mould. The spire rises from 

 a corbel table of notch-heads and has ribbed angles 

 and two tiers of lights in the cardinal faces. 



In the south chapel are two moulded wall recesses 

 off. 1300 with short jamb-shafts, the easternmost of 

 which contains a fine effigy of a knight in chain mail 

 and surcoat, probably representing Sir John de Verdon 

 (d. 1 276), 5 to whom the late- 13th-century rebuilding 

 of this part of the church is ascribed. There is a late- 



Brixworth Church : Interior, looking West* 



wall; the baluster shafts have through-stone impost 

 blocks, capitals of a rough trapezoidal shape, rounded 

 centre-blocks swelling in the middle, with neck and 

 base mouldings, and tall bases, the upper parts of which 

 have hollow curves.^ 



The stair in the western turret is lighted by wide 

 rectangular openings, originally closed by pierced 

 stones,^ and is covered by a winding vault, which 

 retains much of its original plaster.'' The first floor of 

 the tower is entered from the stair through a round- 

 headed archway with brick voussoirs, formed from the 

 original west window of the porch chamber. The 

 entrance to the second floor is through a rough opening, 

 but the walling at this height is of the 14th century, 

 when the present bell-chamber stage was erected and 

 the broach spire with angle pinnacles built. The head 

 of the stair and its vault were then destroyed just above 

 the vault's springing, but the turret was retained to its 

 full height, rising some distance above the later 

 masonry. A considerable amount of herring-bone 



1 5th-century painted screen in front of the eastern 

 arch of the chapel arcade. 



The font is ancient and consists of a small circular 

 bowl on a tall circular shaft or pedestal, with moulded 

 base.* The wooden pulpit is modern and stands on a 

 stone base. 



In the church are some interesting carved stones. 

 One of these, with the figure of an eagle in low relief, 

 is built into the inner west jamb of the south doorway.' 

 A portion of a pre-Conquest cross shaft, found in the 

 vicarage garden close to the church in 1 897, is now 

 placed near the pulpit; its ornamental sculpture closely 

 resembles that of the 'fishing stone' at Gosforth, 

 Cumberland.* Another carved stone is built into the 

 east wall of the south chapel. 



In the floor of the presbytery are two monumental 

 slabs with inscriptions in Lombardic lettering: one is 

 that of Simon Curteys (d. 1328) the founder of the 

 chantry, while the other is that of Adam de Tauntone, 

 vicar, who died in 1334.' There is also a third slab. 



' Arch. your. Ixix, 509. 



2 Ibid. Ixix, 508. 



3 Two of the openings are still thus 

 closed, but one of the stones, if not both, 

 is a comparatively late insertion: ibid. 



•• Its material, and that of the newel of 

 the stair, is in great part tufa. 



5 Described in F.C.H. Nortkanls. i, 396. 



^ The bowl is 22| in. in diam. and 1 6 in. 

 high. The date is uncertain. 



' Its claim to be Roman {Archaeol. 

 xliii, 119) is generally abandoned. It is 

 described by Sir H. Dryden in Assoc. Arch. 

 Sec. Rpis. xxii, 78. See also F.C.H. 

 Northants. ii, 1 89, where it is styled 'the 

 arm of a cross', and Prior and Gardner, 

 Eng. Med. Figure Sculpture (1911), 131, 

 under 'Saxon sculpture'. 



* Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rpls. xxvi, 4.45, 

 where it is figured. The sculpture repre- 



sents the struggle between Fenrir and 

 Jormungand. 



' Both slabs have indents for brasses; 

 the inscriptions are given in Bridges, Hist. 

 of Northants. ii, 83-4. The date of 

 Simon's death, given as 16 August 1328, 

 must be wrong, as he was dead before 

 April 1327: Cal. Pat. 1327-30, p. 69. 



* Reproduced from Baldwin Brown, op. 

 cit., by permission of Messrs. John Murray. 



156 



