BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



io o 



Li M U LJu L- 



it is set is doubtless accounted for by the usual 

 mediaeval process of building the east wall outside the 

 lines of the older chancel which it was to supersede, 

 a method very productive of errors in setting out. 



Later in the fourteenth century a south aisle was 

 added, its arcade not being parallel to the existing 

 arcade, and the final irregularity was attained by the 

 addition of a western tower early in the fifteenth 

 century, which appears to have been set out after the 

 same fashion as the chancel — the west wall of the 

 nave and aisles being rebuilt to square with the new 

 tower, without reference to the direction of the nave 

 arcades. 



Later in the fifteenth century the south aisle was 

 lengthened eastward, and a south porch was added ; 

 the latter was destroyed about 1823, and its outer 

 archway now serves as a north doorway to the nave. 

 By the beginning of the nineteenth century the 

 church had fallen into a very bad state. In the 

 repairs then undertaken between 1823 and 1830 

 the east wall of the chancel was taken down and the 

 chancel shortened and re-roofed, and at the same 

 time the nave received a new roof, and the south aisle 

 was taken down and rebuilt with the old materials. 



The chancel has a modern east wall 

 with a three-light window copied from 

 the east window of Wilbraham Church 

 in Cambridgeshire. There are two- 

 light windows of fifteenth-century style 

 on either side of the chancel, whose 

 tracery appears to be modern, and in the 

 south wall is another similar window 

 blocked, with a small fourteenth-cen- 

 tury priest's door, also blocked, close to 

 it on the east. A piscina formerly in 

 the chancel is now set at the north- 

 west angle of the nave in the tower 

 wall, but has entirely lost its ancient 

 appearance in the process of ' restora- 

 tion.' The chancel arch is plain and 

 pointed without any moulded detail, 

 and is probably part of the nineteenth- 

 century repairs. 



The nave arcades are of four bays ; 

 that on the north having circular columns with 

 moulded capitals, and pointed arches of two hollow- 

 chamfered orders, the labels over the arches being ap- 

 parently of modern detail ; the bases of the arcade are 

 worked in cement. The south arcade has octagonal 

 pillars with moulded capitals and arches of two orders 

 with wave moulds ; the labels here again being 

 modernized. The clearstory is of four square-headed 

 windows a side, each of two cinquefoiled lights, and 

 belongs to the latter part of the fifteenth century. 

 The nave roof, as already noted, is modern, but on 

 the underside of the tie-beams are set fifteenth-century 

 wooden figures of angels brought here from Biggles- 

 wade Church. The date of the roof is on one of the 

 tie-beams. 



The windows in the north aisle are of fifteenth- 

 century style with tracery which appears to be 

 modern. The three north windows are each of 

 three lights, while the east window is of two lights 

 and contains some extremely interesting fourteenth- 

 century glass from a ' church in Yorkshire,' represent- 

 ing St. Edward, St. Oswald, St. Dunstan, and St. 



. . bald, the canopies in the heads of the lights 

 being of the fifteenth century, and in the tracery 



COCKAYNE 

 HATLEY 



above other fragments of old glass have been set. This 

 is the only old glass in the church, but there is a 

 great deal of modern heraldic glass. 



The north doorway has a pointed arch under a 

 square head with traceried spandrels, and four-leaf 

 flowers in the arch and jambs, and is somewhat 

 awkwardly set in the wall, not having been in its 

 original position intended to take a wooden door. 



The east window of the south aisle, which is- 

 blocked on the inside, is a good fifteenth-century 

 window of three lights with tracery, the three 

 south windows of the aisle being of fourteenth-century 

 date with trefoiled main lights and quatrefoils over. 

 The south doorway, now blodied by the monu- 

 ment of Sir Patrick Hume, is also of the fourteenth- 

 century with a moulded arch of two orders and 

 a label. 



The tower is of three stages, 66 ft. high, with an 

 embattled parapet and modern angle pinnacles copied 

 from Denton Church, Lincolnshire. The belfry 

 windows are in pairs, with tall two-light trefoiled 

 openings and ogee heads. In the second stage are 

 plain square-headed lights on north, south, and west, 

 and in the ground stage a large three-light west 



10 



20 



30 



=1 



0ca.le o£ feet 



12*cent. ■l4'fccent. 

 ^M modern 



Plan of St. John's Church, Cockayne Hatley 



window with a western doorway below it, both 

 having labels with crocketed finials at the apex. At 

 the north-east angle is a stone stair entered from the 

 west end of the north aisle. It stops at the level of 

 the belfry floor, and a second stair in the south-east 

 angle runs up to the battlements. 



The fittings of the church are unusually elaborate. 

 In the two eastern bays of the nave and the western 

 half of the chancel are a set of finely-carved stalls 

 from the abbey of Alne, near Charleroi, dated 1689. 

 Of these eight are in the chancel and twenty-four are 

 in the nave, the western stalls being returned. The 

 walls of the chancel are panelled with very elaborate 

 carved woodwork with sixteen medallions in high 

 relief representing saints and doctors of the church, 

 each being surrounded by wreaths of foliage and 

 fruit. Between each compartment are angels holding 

 instruments of the Passion, and the backs of the stalls 

 are inlaid with patterns in black wood. 



The altar rails, from Mechlin in Flanders, are about 

 two feet high, and have four compartments carved in 

 high relief with types of the Eucharist : (i) The 

 Israelites obtaining water from the rock ; (2) The 

 Gathering of the Manna ; (3) Harvest ; (4) Vintage. 



217 



28 



