A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



and the estate was eventually sold in 1 69 1 ' by a Robert 

 Osborne to Thomas Johnson of London who conveyed 

 it to Thomas Mercer in 1706.- His grandson Thomas 

 Mercer was in possession when Bridges wrote, and had 

 here 'a very good mansion house'. ^ 



Thomas Lynes was lord of the manor in 1847'* 

 and Lewis Loyd, esq. in 1854.' From him it had passed 

 by 1864 to his son Baron Overstone,* on the death of 

 whose daughter, Lady Wantage, the estates were broken 

 up and the manor lapsed. 



Reference to a grange of Piddington, in 1632, 

 occurs in a fine between Ralph Freeman and Basil 

 NicoU and Euseby and Mary Andrews and Robert 

 Newdigate.'' According to Bridges this passed to the 

 family of Wake* and was sold to Dr. Eaton of Glouces- 

 ter Hall, Oxford, whose two daughters possessed it at 

 the time when he wrote.' 



The church of ST. JOHN THE 

 CHURCH BAPTIST'" consists of chancel, 15 ft. 

 9 in. by 14 ft. 9 in.; clerestoried nave, 

 55 ft. by 15 ft. 3 in.; north and south aisles about 

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

 square, all these measurements being internal. The 

 width across nave and aisles is 37 ft. The tower is 

 surmounted by a spire. 



The building belongs generally to c. 1280—90, but 

 has been very extensively restored and in part rebuilt. 

 The clerestory appears to have been added in the 

 1 5th century and other work was then probably done 

 which has since been removed. In 1877-8 the north 

 aisle was rebuilt, the nave roof renewed, and the 

 tower repaired;" in 1901 the south aisle and porch were 

 rebuilt and the chancel and spire restored; and in 

 1907-8 there was a general restoration of the interior, 

 which was newly seated. The older walling in chancel, 

 clerestory, and tower is of limestone, but the aisles and 

 porch were rebuilt in ironstone. The roof of the nave 

 is of low pitch and covered with slates, the aisles are 

 leaded, and the chancel and porch tiled. There are 

 straight parapets to the nave and aisles. Internally the 

 walls are of bare stone. 



The chancel is without buttresses or strings and 

 retains no ancient features. The modern pointed east 

 window is of three cinquefoiled lights with vertical 

 tracery, and the arch to the nave is also modern. The 

 north and south walls are blank. 



The nave arcades are of four bays, with pointed 

 arches of two chamfered orders, on octagonal pillars 

 and responds, with moulded capitals and bases. The 

 arches have hood-moulds on the nave side only. There 

 is about 5 ft. of straight wall at the east end of the south 

 arcade, in which the upper doorway to the rood-loft 

 (now blocked) remains. '■' 



With one exception all the windows in the aisles are 

 modern and square-headed, but a few ancient features 

 have been retained. The plain pointed north doorway 

 is the old one re-used, and in the usual position at the 

 east end of the south aisle is a restored round-headed 



' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 3 Wm. 

 and Mary; Recov. R. Trin. 3 Wm. and 

 Mary, m. 76. 



^ Feet of F. Northants. East. 5 Anne. 



3 Op. cit. i, 379. 



* The manors of Hackleton and Pidding- 

 ton were conveyed to him by the Rev. 

 John Lynes in that year : Overstone Deeds 

 (penes Northants. Rec. Soc), no. 1833. 



5 Ibid. 



^ Ibid, and Complete Peerage (1895). 



' Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 8 Chas. I. 



8 The Wakes were 

 Piddington from about 1550 {f'.CM. 

 Northants. Families^ 325 seqq.) until about 

 1920, when the Rev. Hereward Eyre 

 Wake sold the estate. 

 » Bridges, i, 378. 



"> Bridges {Northants. i, 378) gives this 

 dedication but adds in a footnote 'or 

 probably St. Thomas Becket', presumably 

 because the wake was held on 7 July, the 

 Translation of St. Thomas. 



" The cost was about j^' 1,3 00. The 



cusped piscina with circular bowl. The pointed win- 

 dow at the east end of the north aisle is a late-i4th- 

 century one re-used, of two trefoiled lights with quatre- 

 foil in the head: on its north side is an original bracket. 

 The south doorway is modern, in the 13th-century 

 style. The trefoiled head of a niche over the porch 

 entrance is old. 



The clerestory has five four-centred windows of 

 two trefoiled lights on each side, with hood-moulds 

 and double chamfered jambs. Below the present roof, 

 on the east face of the tower, is the line of the original 

 nave roof. 



The tower is of three stages with moulded plinth 

 and pairs of two-stage buttresses on the west side. The 

 west doorway has an arch of three orders, the middle 

 one with a hollow chamfer, the others moulded, on 

 jamb-shafts with moulded capitals and bases: the hood- 

 mould is keel-shaped. The arch is much restored and 

 the outer shaft and capital on the north side are want- 

 ing. The two lower stages of the tower on the north 

 and south are blank, but on the west side of the middle 

 stage is a single tall narrow lancet window with hood- 

 mould and chamfered jambs. The bell-chamber 

 windows are of two tall trefoiled lancet lights under a 

 containing hood-mould, the spandrel left solid. There 

 is no vice. The arch to the nave is of three chamfered 

 orders, the two outer dying out or continuous, the 

 innermost on half-octagonal responds with moulded 

 capitals. 



The spire is of a somewhat uncommon design and 

 has certain affinities with that of Denford.'-' It belongs 

 to the so-called 'timber type of spire worked in masonry' 

 and rises from behind a parapet ornamented with tre- 

 foiled circles carried on a corbel table, with tall oc- 

 tagonal angle pinnacles. Between the lower sloping 

 sides and the stone collars or bands is a short octagonal 

 stage, and the lower gabled windows, which are on the 

 cardinal sides, are of two lights with forked muUion. 

 The small upper lights are placed in the intermediate 

 faces of the spire, the angles of which are plain. 



The font has a plain octagonal lead-lined bowl on 

 eight clustered keel-shaped shafts with moulded bases 

 and is of late-i3th-century date. 



The pulpit and other fittings are modern. The organ 

 is at the east end of the north aisle. 



In the chancel is a wall monument to Joseph Swayn, 

 of Northampton, apothecary (d. 1720), and in the 

 south aisle and nave memorials to several members of 

 the Mason family (1733 to 1809) and to John Glass, 

 deputy ranger of Salcey Forest (d. 1775). The 'long 

 grey square stone' with Norman-French inscription, 

 noted by Bridges, is now covered by the modern tiled 

 floor. ■■» 



There are six bells in the tower, a new treble 

 by Taylor of Loughborough having been added in 

 1935 to the ring of five cast by the same founders in 

 i845-6.'5 



The silver plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 



connected with spire had been repaired in 1847. 



'- The masonry has been much dis- 

 turbed below, but the quoins of what 

 appears to have been the lower rood-stair 

 doorway remain. 



" f'.C.H. Northants. iii, 195. 



'I Ex. inf. Rev. B. G. D. Clarke, vicar. 

 The inscription is given in Bridges, op. cit. 

 i, 378. The floor-slab of Richard Wil- 

 loughby (d. 1700) is likewise so covered. 



'5 North, Ch. Bells of Northants. 382, 

 where the inscriptions are given. 



278 



