A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



all these measurements being internal. There is no 

 structural division between the nave and chancel, the 

 length of which together is 77 ft. 6 in., and the total 

 internal length of the church 92 ft. 6 in. The width 

 across the nave and aisles is 41 ft. There is no clere- 

 story. 



The church was built in 1534 by Anthony Catesby 

 and his wife, and their son John, and has remained 

 unaltered. It is a very interesting unspoilt example of 

 late medieval design, and has been described as 'a small 

 but perfect specimen of the Tudor style',' but its 

 details preserve all the character of the best work of the 

 15th century, and there is little structural evidence of 

 its late date. In Bridges' time, however, there still 



tinued along the east gable, with a cross at the apex: 

 the north and south walls of the chancel are blank. 



The nave arcades^ are of four bays, with four-centred 

 moulded arches on pillars composed of four attached 

 columns disposed around a cylindrical core, with 

 moulded bases and capitals, and from responds of 

 similar character. The spandrels are richly ornamented 

 with blind tracery below a moulded string, and over 

 the pillars are scroll-bearing angel corbels supporting 

 slender roof shafts with moulded capitals and bases. 



The aisles overlap the chancel about 5 ft., the eastern- 

 most bay of each being therefore longer than the others. 

 The external setting out of the bays follows that of the 

 arcades, with two-stage buttresses opposite the pillars. 



1 161 Century early 



10 5 o 



10 



20 



30 



40 



50 



Scale of Feet 



Plan of Whiston Church 



existed in one of the windows the remains of an inscrip- 

 tion which read 'Orate pro . . . Antonii Catesby Armi- 

 geri et Isabelle uxoris ejus Domini . . . Johannis 

 Junioris generosi ejusdem Antonii . . . qui quidem 

 Antonius, Isabella et Johannes hanc Ecclesiam con- 

 diderunt . . . quingentesimo tricesimo quarto. . . .',^ 

 which it rightly recorded places the year of building 

 beyond doubt. 



Except in the tower, where limestone and local iron- 

 stone are used in decorative contrast, the walls are 

 wholly faced with dressed limestone, with chamfered 

 plinths, moulded bases, strings at sill level, and battle- 

 mented parapets. The roofs are of low pitch and leaded: 

 the aisles are under separate ridged roofs, but with 

 raking parapets at the ends. The building is planned 

 symmetrically, and though in the main the detail is rich 

 it is distributed judiciously and is not overcharged. In- 

 ternally, except in the tower, all the walls are plastered 

 and the floors flagged. 



The chancel has large clasping angle buttresses 

 and a four-centred east window of five lights, with 

 moulded jambs and mullions. Perpendicular tracery, 

 and hood-mould. The battlemented parapet is con- 



the end buttresses being placed a foot from the angles. 

 The aisle windows are all four-centred, with moulded 

 jambs and mullions, those in the north and south walls 

 being of four lights and the east and west windows of 

 three. The hood-moulds have plain stops and the tre- 

 foiled lights have feather cusping: the sills are about 8 ft. 

 from the ground. The south doorway is below the 

 window of the second bay from the west; it has a con- 

 tinuous-moulded four-centred arch and is covered by 

 the porch, which measures internally only 6 ft. by 2 ft. 

 The porch has a battlemented parapet and panelled 

 stone roof: its outer moulded arch rests on slender jamb- 

 shafts with moulded capitals and is within a square 

 frame, the spandrels of which contain blank shields. 

 At the east end of the south aisle, in the position usually 

 occupied by the piscina, is a plain pointed chamfered 

 recess, but without indication of a basin. There is no 

 piscina in either the chancel or north aisle, but there is 

 a doorway in the north wall of the aisle near its east end. 

 The oak roofs of the nave and aisles are excellent 

 examples of the work of the period, with moulded and 

 carved principals, and moulded ridges, purlins, and 

 rafters. The roof of nave and chancel is continuous, 



' Parker, Gothic Arch. {Companion^ 

 1846), iii, 154.. 



^ Hist, of Northants. i, 390. The words 

 of the inscription lay 'scattered and mis- 

 placed in several panels of the glass'. In 



several places in the aisle windows was 

 'grace be owre gyde*. There is now no 

 ancient glass in the church. 



3 There is an elevation of the south 

 arcade in Sharpe's Chs. of the Nene Galley, 



plate 57 : the width of the arches averages 

 13 ft., and the height of the pillars to the 

 top of the capitals is 15 ft. The moulded 

 bases are 3 ft. high. 



290 



