A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The tower is of three stages divided by strings, and 

 has a moulded plinth and diagonal angle buttresses of 

 four stages on the west side. The four-centred west 

 doorway is now blocked: it has a continuous-moulded 

 arch, square hood-mould, and carved spandrels, and 

 above it is a tall pointed window of two trefoiled lights 

 and vertical tracery. The two lower stages on the 

 north and south are blank, but in the second stage on 

 the west side is a small square-headed opening. There 

 is a projecting vice in the south-east corner. The 

 pointed bell-chamber windows are of two trefoiled 

 lights with quatrefoil in the head, and the tower ter- 

 minates in a battlemented parapet. The lotty pointed 

 arch to the nave is the full width of the tower, its three 

 chamfered orders dying into the wall on each side. 

 There are two steps up from the nave to the floor of 

 the tower. 



The fine late-ljth-cenUiry font has a circular bowl 

 on a central column with moulded top and base, and 

 four moulded legs, or shafts, the junctions of which 

 with the bowl are carved with grotesque faces and 

 vigorous animal forms. 



The oak pulpit and other fittings are modern. In 

 the chancel is a brass tablet in memory of Horatio 

 Woodhouse (d. 1679), who was rector for nearly 

 thirty-seven years.' There is a memorial on the south 

 wall of the aisle to four men of the parish who fell in 

 the war of 1914-19. 



There are five bells in the tower, a new tenor by 

 Taylor & Co. of Loughborough having been added 

 in 191 5 to a former ring of four, the first three of which 

 were at the same time recast. The old fourth bell is 

 inscribed 'Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum', and is 

 probably by a 15th-century London maker. ^ 



The communion plate, which included a cup and 

 cover paten of 1570,^ was stolen in 1907, and was re- 

 placed by a new cup and paten in the same year. There 

 is also a paten of 1919, and a pewter flagon. 



Bridges, writing about 1720, says that the registers 

 were 'consumed in a fire which broke out in the parson- 



age house some years ago and burned a considerable 

 part of the town'.'' In the earliest existing book, which 

 from damp and other causes has become almost illegible, 

 the earliest date that can be read is 1 7 1 9 and the latest 

 1764. There is also a volume of marriages 1754- 1812, 

 and a fragmentary volume from January 1787 to 1 81 1. 



The churchwardens' accounts begin in 1638 and 

 continue, with gaps, until 1854; there are constables' 

 accounts from 1680 to 1795, and overseers' accounts 

 1 73 3-1 808. 



The church possesses a copy of the Book of Homilies 

 1623, and imperfect copies (titles missing) of the 

 'Paraphrase' of Erasmus, and Jewel's 'Apology'. 



The jointadvowsons of the churches 

 ADVOWSON of Collingtree and Milton Malzor 

 were held as two moieties until some 

 time after 1441, when Collingtree came to be con- 

 sidered the possession of Thomas Wake who had for- 

 merly held one of the moieties. It passed from the 

 Wake family with the manor they held in Milton and 

 Collingtree to Oliver Wood and followed the same 

 descent as that manor until sold by Francis Foxley to 

 Francis Hervey in 1606.' The Hervey family seem to 

 have retained possession of the advowson until the 

 middle years of the eighteenth century, since when it 

 has changed hands several times. It was purchased in 

 1 87 1 by Mr. Pickering Phipps,* and is now in the gift 

 of the executors of Mrs. Phipps. 



The Methodists have a place of worship in the 

 village. 



Church Estate. The rent of about 

 CHARITIES 6 acres of land in this parish, amounting 

 to j^i2 in 1935, is paid to the church- 

 wardens and applied towards church expenses. 



Reading room and Institute. By an indenture dated 

 I December 1914 property was conveyed to the Peter- 

 borough Diocesan Trustees to be used by the in- 

 habitants of this parish as a Reading room and Institute, 

 and the rector and churchwardens were appointed 

 trustees. 



COURTEENHALL 



Cortenhale (xi cent.); Curtehala, Cortehalle (xii 

 cent.); Kortinhale, Cortenhalle (xiii cent.); Cortnall, 

 Cawtnoll, Curtenhall (xvi cent.); Courtenhall (xvii 

 cent.); Courtnall (1702). 



The parish of Courteenhall is 1,601 acres in extent, 

 about 425 acres of which are arable; the soil varies 

 between the Oolite and Lias formations; the subsoil is 

 clay and sand. The chief crops produced are wheat, 

 oats, and roots. In 1884a small detached part of Woot- 

 ton parish was added to Courteenhall. The village, 

 which consists of 18 houses (exclusive of outlying farms 

 and cottages), stands a mile from the main road from 

 London to Northampton. It has diminished in size 

 since its inclosure in the 17th century. Bridges, writing 

 between 17 19 and 1724, says of the church, 'It is now 

 seated at the upper end of the town, but within the 

 memory of man had many houses standing beyond and 



about it, which since the enclosure of the parish have 

 been destroyed.'' 



There was a school at Courteenhall in 1593, but 

 nothing is known of its previous history. It had ceased 

 to exist in 1672, when Sir Samuel Jones by his wiU left 

 an annuity of ;^loo towards the maintenance of a 

 schoolmaster and usher in the parish, together with 

 ;^50o for the adaptation of a farm-house as the master's 

 and usher's dwelling, and for the erection of a Free 

 School. The school was for the children of Courteen- 

 hall and within 4 miles compass thereof. The last 

 master under the old foundation died in 1898. The 

 school building lies in the park west of the church, and 

 is constructed of roughly coursed limestone, with 

 dressings of local ironstone and red tiled roofs. The 

 two-storied* middle portion, in which there is a good 

 oak well staircase,' was the dwelling-house of the 



' He was a younger son of Colonel 

 Henry Woodhouse of Waxham, Norfolk. 



2 North, Ch. Belh of Northants. 226, 

 where the inscriptions on the old bells are 

 given. The first and second were by James 

 Keene of Woodstock 1621, and the third 

 was probably by Thomas Newcombe H 



of Leicester (1562-80). The new bells 

 were first rung on November 1 1 th, 1 9 1 8. 



3 Markham, Ch. Plate of Northants. 75. 



•* Hist, of NoTthants. i, 351. 



5 Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 4 Jas. I. 



' Whellan, Uiit. Norlkants. 255. 



' Bridges, Hht. Northants. i, 353. 



8 There are also attics in the roof, 

 lighted by dormer windows. 



'^ The stairs go up to the attics. They 

 have panelled risers, square flat-topped 

 newels, and twisted balusters. 



242 



