A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



rest of the south side being occupied by an arcade of 

 two bays opening to the south chapel and contem- 

 porary with it. This chapel has one east window 

 and two on the south, each of three cinquefoiled 

 lights under flat-pointed heads, and between the two 

 south windows is a doorway in modern stonework. 

 East of this doorway, on the inner face of the wall, is 

 a recess 1 2 in. deep, with a four-centred head, the sill 

 being about 6 ft. from the floor, and below the south- 

 east window is a piscina. 



The chancel arch is of the full width of the chancel, 

 with moulded capitals of slight projection, and an arch 

 of two moulded orders, the jambs having the curious 

 local detail of the rounded member running up to the 

 capitals and stopping abruptly under the abacus. 



The nave is of five bays, the south arcade being of 

 slightly earlier detail than the north. It has piers of 

 four engaged shafts with small keeled rolls in the angles, 

 moulded capitals and bases following the plan of the 

 shafts, the bases being raised on square plinths, and 

 pointed arches of two hollow-chamfered orders. The 



image. The transept opens to the north aisle by a 

 modern arch. The windows in the north aisle are 

 all of late fifteenth-century date where not modernized, 

 but the doorway is of plain fourteenth-century work, 

 with continuous moulded outer arch. 



The north porch has entrances on the north and 

 west, the latter being probably not part of the original 

 arrangement. In the west wall, near the entrance to 

 the church, are two recesses, both plastered and of 

 uncertain origin, though one may have held the holy 

 water stone. At the south-east is a vice in a turret of 

 irregular plan leading to the parvise above, and in the 

 east wall is a fifteenth-century lozenge-shaped panel of 

 stone, with indents of a brass, clearly that of a priest, 

 the central object having been a chalice and host. 

 The parvise is lighted by square-headed windows of 

 two cinquefoiled lights. 



The south aisle has three three-light windows on 

 the south and one at the west, of fifteenth-century 

 style, of which that east of the south doorway appears 

 to be of somewhat earlier date than those on either 



Plan op Potton Church 



north arcade has octagonal piers with moulded capitals 

 and bases, and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. 

 The bases of the western pier and respond of this 

 arcade are of a distinctly later type than the others. 

 The date is about 1330, and the south arcade is some 

 twenty years earlier. 



At the west end of the south arcade the nave wall 

 is thickened on the inside, a feature which is difficult 

 to explain. It may be the remains of an eastern 

 tower buttress such as are common in the churches in 

 the district, or part of an older nave wall. 



The north transept retains of its original features 

 only a small blocked lancet in the west wall and the 

 quoining of its northern angles. Its north window is 

 modern, of three lights, and the east window, also of 

 three lights, is of the fifteenth century. At the south- 

 east angle a fifteenth-century rood stair has been in- 

 serted, the turret containing it projecting beyond the 

 wall on both sides ; its entrance doorway is at the 

 west, and on its north-west face is a niche for an 



side of it ; the west window is modem. The door- 

 way, which is externally of modem stonework, has a 

 four-centred arch under a square head. There was 

 formerly a south porch here, but it was destroyed in 

 1 848, and in consequence part of the south waL 

 fell for lack of its abutment. 



The nave clearstory has five square-headed windows 

 on each side, all being of two cinquefoiled lights 

 except the east window on the south side, which is of 

 three lights in order to throw more light on the rood. 



The west tower is of four stages, with an embattled 

 parapet and belfry windows of two trefoiled lights 

 with a quatrefoil in the head. The third stage is 

 shallow, and lighted only by slits on north and south. 

 In the second stage is a three-light west window, and 

 in the ground stage a small blocked west doorway, the 

 stonework of which appears to be modern. At the 

 north-east is a stair in a turret, which projects as a 

 semicircle from the outer face of the north wall. In 

 its lowest stage it has vertical stone ribs at intervals. 



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