FLITT HUNDRED 



LUTON 



of two chamfered orders are higher than the earlier 

 ones and the moulded labels are turned up at the 

 points of the arches to mitre with the moulded string 

 course at the base of the clearstory. The clearstory 

 is of the same date as these later arches and has five 

 square-headed windows a side, each of two cinque- 

 foiled lights. 



The roofs of the nave and crossing are at one level ; 

 they have been restored, but probably contain many 

 of the old timbers. The tie-beams are moulded and 

 are filled in above with tracery. The purlins are 

 also moulded. The jacks of the trusses rest upon 

 stone corbels carved into grotesque heads, some human 

 and some of beasts ; those at the east and west ends 

 of the nave look out from the walls diagonally. The 

 heads over the transept arches are large and coarse, 

 like those in the chancel. 



Of the aisle windows only those in the west walls 

 are original, that in the north aisle being of two tre- 

 foiled lights with a quatrefbil over. It has been forced 

 northwards by the thrust of the tower arch. The 

 north jamb is splayed, but the south is square, being 

 the face of the north-east buttress of the tower. The 

 west window of the south aisle has two lights with 

 sharply-pointed cinquefoiled heads and a quatrefoiled 

 spandrel over ; the tracery has been renewed. 



The westernmost window in the south wall is 

 modern, of two cinquefoiled lights with tracery over, 

 and all the other aisle windows are fifteenth-century 

 insertions of three lights with cinquefoiled heads and 

 tracery under segmental arches with labels. The 

 four in the north wall have old jambs and tracery, 

 and new sills and labels. The three in the south 

 have been completely renewed on the outside. 



The entrance doorways to the aisles are both of 

 fourteenth-century date. That in the north wall has 

 two continuous chamfered orders and a scrolled label, 

 the outer order having broach stops at the base ; 

 while the south doorway has two continuous sunk 

 chamfered orders. The south door itself, which is 

 of oak with traceried panels, appears to be of the 

 same date as the stonework. 



Below the easternmost window in the south aisle 

 is a piscina with the original fourteenth-century 

 jambs and bowl ; the jambs are carved with ball- 

 flowers in a hollow chamfer between two small rolls, 

 but the head is now a square lintel formed by the 

 fifteenth-century window-ledge. Close to the south 

 door is a holy-water stone, partly blocked up, with 

 an ogee head, and to the west are the upper and 

 lower doorways to the parvise over the south porch ; 

 both are of fourteenth-century date. The porch and 

 parvise have been completely restored outside, and the 

 outer doorway and windows are new. There is a 

 single ogee-headed light on either side of the porch, 

 and a square-headed window of three trefoiled lights 

 in the south wall of the parvise. The stair to the 

 latter goes up in a round turret in the western angle 

 between the porch and the aisle. 



To the east of the north doorway of the nave is 

 a holy-water stone with a two-centred head of square 

 section. It is earlier in appearance than the aisle 

 wall, and may be a thirteenth-century one re-used. 

 There is no stair turret to the parvise over the north 

 porch, but a square-headed door looks into the aisle 

 at the parvise level. The outer arch of the porch 

 is of three continuous chamfered orders, with a 

 label stopping on carved human head corbels much 



defaced. The label is new, but the rest appears to be 

 fourteenth-century work. The parvise window over 

 the doorway is old, of two trefoiled lights under 

 a square head. 



The roofs of the aisles are modern, and are sup- 

 ported on cross arches, of two chamfered orders, from 

 the piers to the side walls. 



The eastern arch of the tower is fine and lofty, 

 with three large engaged round shafts in the responds, 

 separated by small hollow chamfers, moulded bases, 

 and carved foliate capitals. The arch is of three 

 moulded orders, with double ogees, wave moulds, 

 and filleted bowtells, separated by deeply-recessed 

 hollows, and with a scroll-mould label stopping on 

 carved human head corbels. Over the arch the line 

 of the former steep-gabled roof, before the addition 

 of the clearstory, is plainly to be seen. 



The doorway to the turret in the bottom of the 

 tower has a two-centred arch and jambs of two 

 chamfered orders, and is original. 



The west doorway is a modern one in fourteenth- 

 century style, and has jambs and a two-centred arch 

 with three continuous orders of double ogees with 

 three quarter hollows between them. 



The four-light window over retains its fourteenth- 

 century jambs and arch, but the tracery and label 

 have been renewed. Besides the monial of a hollow 

 chamfer and ogee mould, there are three orders with 

 three quarter hollows between, the inner one being a 

 wave mould and the other two double ogees. 



The tower is of three stages, and some 90 ft. in 

 height, with an embattled parapet and octagonal 

 angle turrets, also embattled, rising above the parapet. 

 There is a low pyramidal roof with a vane post and 

 vane, and at the base of the parapet . is a moulded 

 cornice with gargoyles at the angles. The tower 

 stair is in a turret at the south-east. The belfry 

 windows, which look rather later in style than the 

 lower part of the tower, have each two cinquefoiled 

 lights with cusped piercing above, under a two-centred 

 arch. The jamb moulds are much weathered, but 

 appear to consist of a large hollow and an ogee mould. 

 In the second story is a clock face on the west side, 

 and on the other three sides a small single trefoiled 

 light with a wave-moulded outer order. 



At the angles of the tower are pairs of buttresses 

 of seven stages, in the second and sixth of which are 

 canopied niches for statues, but these with the but- 

 tresses are so decayed as to be almost shapeless ; they 

 are now undergoing a thorough refacing. 



The walling is faced with chequered work of flints 

 and Totternhoe stone. This chequering also appears 

 on the walls of the aisles, porches, and transepts, a 

 great deal of it being quite modern. The walling on 

 the south side of the chancel is of roughly-squared 

 rubble, once wholly plastered, and the modern east 

 wall of the chancel is of dressed ashlar. 



Most of the buttresses of the church have been 

 restored or rebuilt, but the two at the south-wesi 

 angle of the south aisle look like original fourteenth' 

 century work. There are buttresses to the clearstoi} 

 walls between the windows. 



The parapets of the church have for the most part 

 been renewed • in brick or stone, nothing but the 

 string courses of the old work, at the bases of the 

 parapets, having been here and there preserved. 



A good many pieces of architectural detail have 

 been collected at various times and stored up in the 



37^ 



