A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



as is suggested by the commission ; it may be that 

 the intention was to compel the parish to finish off 

 a work which had been some long time in hand, and 

 was not being pushed on with any energy. 



One result of the rebuilding of the church on an 

 enlarged plan has been that the building is rather too 

 long for its site, and the foundations both at the east 

 and west have given trouble from time to time. The 

 western tower fell in 1 70 1, and the south-west porch 

 has had to be rebuilt, while at the east end there is 

 some evidence of failure in the blocking of the north- 

 east stair and the rebuilding of the eastern gable in 

 the fifteenth century. The original east window 

 was also at this time replaced by a smaller window, 

 set within its jambs. The western tower was not 

 rebuilt, after its fall in 1 701, till 1750. The chancel 

 is of three bays, with arcades having arches of two 

 orders, the outer with a sunk chamfer and the inner 

 with a quarter-round moulding. The piers are of 

 four engaged rounded shafts with hollow chamfers 

 between, and the capitals and bases have mouldings of 

 excellent detail, following the plan of the pier. Over 

 the arches are moulded labels, and at the level of the 

 sills of the clearstory windows runs a moulded 

 string. The cleantory windows are of two cinque- 

 foiled lights with a quatrefoiled spandrel in the head, 

 the tracery being renewed throughout, and the roof is 

 of low pitch with modern timbers. The east 

 window of the chancel is a fifteenth-century insertion 

 of four cinquefoiled lights with tracery and a transom 

 in the head ; it is framed by the rear arch of the 

 much larger original window, which has a band of 

 four-leaved flowers and a moulded label springing 

 from human heads, and engaged shafts in the jambs. 

 The eastern arches of both arcades are blocked as high 

 as the springing by solid masonry walls, coped at the 

 top, the bonding showing that this is part of the 

 original work, to form an inclosure for the high altar. 

 The external elevation of the east end of the church 

 is distinctly imposing, the angles of the chancel being 

 accentuated by rectangular turrets, the northern of 

 which contains a stair leading from the ground level 

 to the roofs, and by a gallery in front of the east 

 gables to the south turret, in which a short stair 

 leads down to the roof of the south aisle. The 

 turrets are embattled, and the gallery between them 

 has a plain parapet, on the cornice at the base of 

 which is the Ashton rebus, an ass and a tun, in 

 reference to Matthew Ashton (Asscheton), a former 

 rector, who died in 1400 and was buried in the 

 church. The chancel arch is fine and lofty, of two 

 moulded orders with half-octagonal responds and 

 moulded capitals and bases : close to its north jamb 

 on the east is the rood-loft doorway. 



Under the east bay of the chancel is a vaulted 

 crypt, 19 ft. square, lighted by two small lancets on 

 the east, and approached from the north-east by a 

 passage which formerly led from the base of the 

 north-east turret stair. The crypt has a round 

 central column with a moulded capital, from which 

 spring four transverse and four diagonal ribs, with 

 plain chamfers, the arc of the transverse ribs being 

 approximately a semicircle, and that of the diagonals 

 in consequence elliptical. At the angles and centres 

 of each side are detached shafts with moulded 

 capitals and bases standing out from the walls, which, 

 like the vault, are of plastered rubble. 



The north chapel has a three-light east window 



with cinquefoiled heads and geometrical tracery, 

 under a two-centred arch. The inner jambs have 

 engaged shafts, with moulded capitals and bases, and 

 the rear arch has a rich and intricate irregular series 

 of mouldings, with a moulded label and carved drip- 

 stones. 



In the south-east angle of the chapel is 3 doorway 

 to the north stair turret, and the entrance to the vault 

 below the chancel is by a trap-door in front of it, 

 but it is evident that the turret stair was originally 

 continued downwards to the crypt, and that it was 

 found necessary to block up the lower part at a later 

 date, probably for strength. The two north windows 

 of the chapel are each of three cinquefoiled lights 

 with geometrical tracery. The jambs and rear arch 

 are old, and like those of the east windows, but have 

 been in part blocked to make room for two 

 eighteenth-century monuments. The tracery has 

 been renewed recently, as indeed has that of all the 

 side windows. 



The western arch of the chapel, in line with the 

 chancel arch, is a two-centred drop-arch, dying into 

 the wall on either side, and of the same detail as the 

 arcades except that it has no labels. 



The east window of the south chapel only differs 

 from that on the north in its tracery, the heads of 

 the three lights being cinquefoiled and four-centred 

 with plain pierced spandrels, under a segmental arch ; 

 the rear arch has the fourteenth-century detail used 

 elsewhere. 



In the eastern bay of the south wall is a late 

 fifteenth-century window of one light, with a plain 

 square head and segmental rear arch ; its ledge inside 

 forms a seat. The two three-light windows to the 

 west of it are similar to those opposite, in the north 

 chapel, but in their complete original form with the 

 attached shafts to the inner jambs. 



At the south-west angle of the chapel is a 

 doorway, probably part of the original design ; its 

 two-centred segmental arched head cuts into the 

 south-western window, and the base of the jamb- 

 shafts has been lifted up to stand on the arch. The 

 western arch of the chapel corresponds to that of the 

 north chapel. 



The nave arcades are of four bays, the details 

 being like those of the chancel arcades, with slight 

 differences in the bases and abaci. The three 

 clearstory windows on each side are also like those in 

 the chancel. The walls west of the responds of the 

 arcades are considerably thicker than those over the 

 arcades, and it is possible that they may be the remains 

 of an earlier nave. 



Each of the nave aisles has two windows, one of 

 three lights in the eastern bay, the other of two 

 lights in the bay next to it ; the lights are cinque- 

 foiled, with geometrical tracery over, and the windows 

 are of plainer detail than those in the chancel, having 

 plain splayed jambs on the inside, and rear arches of 

 simpler section. 



There are doorways in the west bays of both aisles, 

 with fine fourteenth-century moulded details ; over 

 the south doorway is a modern porch, replacing an 

 original porch of two stories, which had a span at the 

 north-west angle, the blocked lower door of which, 

 with an ogee head, remains in the wall west of the 

 entrance doorway. 



In the west wall of the same aisle is a blocked 

 doorway with rebated jambs and a four-centred arch ; 



298 



