EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



LAYSTON 



of the Templars with suit at their court of Bunting- 

 ford.^ This holding passed with the Templars' 

 other lands to the Knights Hospitallers in 1 309.*° 

 After the Dissolution part of the Hospitallers' lands 

 in Buntingford were granted with the preceptory of 

 Shingay*^ and part was attached to the manor of 

 Standon^' in Braughing Hundred (q.v.). 



The church of ST. B^RTHOLO- 

 CHURCHES MEfV consists of chancel 30 ft. 3 in. 

 by 17 ft., nave 52 ft. by 27 ft., west 

 tower 1 4 ft. square and south porch I o ft. by 9 ft. 6 in. ; 

 all internal dimensions. The walls are of flint rubble, 

 partly cemented ; the base-course of the tower has a 

 chequer ornament of flint and stone in 9-in. squares. 

 The nave roof is slated and the chancel roof tiled. 



The chancel belongs to the early part of the 13 th 

 century ; the nave and west tower appear to have 

 been built in the 15th century — 1400-20. The 

 moulding on the base-course round the tower appears 

 also at the north-east and north-west angles of the 

 nave. The south porch probably dates from the 

 early p«rt of the 1 6th century ; it was formerly built 

 of brick with stone dressings, but the church having 

 fallen into a bad state of repair, from disuse, it was 



arch ; the inner jambs have a wide casement 

 moulding. At the east end of the south wall is a 

 13th-century piscina with rebated jambs, much 

 broken, and shouldered head similar to the aumbry 

 in the east wall. Set in the south wall is a stone 

 corbel carved with a grotesque face and with remains 

 of colouring. It is of i 5th-century date and probably 

 supported an image ; it is not in its original position. 

 The chancel arch is slightly four-centred and is of 

 two moulded orders without a label ; the jambs have 

 round engaged shafts with moulded capitals and 



In the north wall of the nave are two three-light and 

 one two-light window of the 15 th century, having 

 cinquefoiled lights under four-centred arches, with wide 

 casement mouldings to the inner jambs ; the outer 

 stonework of the two three-light windows is modern. 

 The north doorway is blocked ; it has a pointed 

 arch and a moulded square label inside. In the 

 south wall are three windows similar to those in the 

 north wall ; some of the external stonework has been 

 renewed. The south doorway is of 15th-century 

 date with moulded arch and jambs ; over the door- 

 way inside is a square moulded label, as on the north. 



Scale oP Feet 



_1 15^ Century 

 SPorCbIS h 160 Cent. EAHiy 



E^ Modern 



Plan op Latston Church 



in 1906 thoroughly repaired. Much of the old 

 stonework was renewed, the porch was faced with 

 flint and the walling generally repaired.*^ 



In the east wall of the chancel are three single 

 lancets of the 13th century; underneath them, 

 inside, is a moulded string-course of the same period. 

 Under the string-course, at the north end of the 

 communion table, is a small aumbry or niche with 

 shouldered head, probably of 1 3th-century date. In 

 the north wall are two blocked lancets ; the stone- 

 work of the western one has been renewed. In the 

 south wall are two 1 3th-century lancets ; below the 

 westernmost is a narrow doorway with pointed 

 splayed arch of 15th-century date. Near the western 

 end of the wall is a 15th-century window of three 

 cinquefoiled lights with tracery under a four-centred 



In the north-east angle of the nave is the doorway to 

 the rood-stair turret ; the stair is gone. 



The south porch has an entrance archway of two 

 moulded orders, the inner one forming a four- 

 centred arch, the outer carried over square with 

 moulded label ; the spandrels are traceried and carved 

 with foliage. Above the entrance is a niche with 

 cinquefoiled ogee arch with carved crockets and 

 finial and crocketed pilaster buttresses on either side ; 

 the niche is embattled above. On either side of the 

 porch is a two-light cusped window, mostly of modern 

 stonework. All the roofs throughout the church are 

 modern. 



The west tower is of three stages, with diagonal 

 buttresses, embattled parapet and small leaded spire. 

 The turret stair is in the south-east angle. The tower 



" Chan. Inq. a.q.d. 24 Edw. I, file 25, 

 no. 3. 



"See Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 131 5 

 1327-301 P- 531- 



*'!.. and P. Hen. VIII, nv, g. 613 



"Ibid, xvi, g. 379 (26); xix (2), 

 g. 166 (70). 



*' In 1522 James Pole directed that 

 his body should be buried in the church 



of the Holy Apostle St. Bartholomew of 

 Layston (P.C.C. 26 Maynwaring). In 

 14.94 Ellen Barbour left to the making 

 of a glass window in Layston Church 

 jf3 or as much money as the window 

 should cost. She directed that four 

 timber crosses should be erected over 

 her husband's and her own sepulchre. 

 She left 26s. %d. for the repair of the 

 bridge 'in the chapel end' in Bunting- 



85 



ford and 6j. %d. for making a cross in 

 Buntingford (ibid. 18 Vox). In 1524 

 John Sawyer directed that his body 

 should be buried in the church of 

 St. Bartholomew of Layston and left as 

 much money as it would cost to make 

 a buttress on the north wall of the church 

 (ibid. 31 Bodfelde). An action arose as 

 to the building of the buttress (Town 

 Depositions, 26 Hen. VIII, bdle. i). 



