A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



ow of three 

 i the chancel. 



north side to the middle of the century, the others 

 being alterations of the 1 6th century. 



There is a three-light window of the 14th century 

 with flowing tracery at the east end of the north aisle, 

 the five windows on the north being of three lights, of 

 i jth-century date ; the tracery of these windows is 

 much decayed. The north doorway belongs to the 

 latter part of the 14th century. The north porch is 

 a good type of 15th-century work with traceried 

 windows, unglazed, under four-centred moulded 

 arches. The outer doorway is set under a square 

 head, the inner moulded order forming the arch. 

 Holes, evidently for a bar, have been roughly cut in 

 the mouldings of the jamb outside the position the 

 door occupied. There is a mutilated 14th-century 

 piscina at the east end of the able and a fragment of 

 a stone bracket, indicating that there was an altar 

 here and possibly a chantry. 89 



The south aisle has an east wit 

 traceried lights corresponding to those 

 The five windows in the south wall were raised in the 

 15th century, and decayed remains of the tracery of 

 that period still remain. The south doorway belongs 

 to the 14th century, and immediately to the west of 

 it is a blocked doorway to the parvise stair. The 

 roof of the aisle appear; to be the original one. The 

 south porch has a parvise over it, the entrance to the 

 turret stair, which projects on the western angle out- 

 side, is now from the porch itself. There is a 

 modern stone vault to the porch, and a late flat roof 

 over the parvise has taken the place of the original 

 steep sloping roof, the front gable now standing 

 unsupported. The porch has unglazed windows with 

 iron stanchions. At the east end of the south aislt 

 are traces of a reredos of an rltar ; on the south side 

 is a 1 4th-century piscina, above which is a lofty niche 

 of, probably, 1 jth-century date, which apparently 

 held the image of our Lady. 100 On the north side is 

 a recess or aumbry, which may have been formed from 

 the partly built-up doorway to the rood stair, which 

 was on the south side. 1 On the east wall is a defaced 

 bracket for an image, with remains of carving, and above 

 it can be seen traces of a distemper painting behind 

 the coats of whitewash, which probably represents the 

 figure of our Lady, to whom the chapel was dedicated, - 



The west tower is a very striking feature of the 

 church, and is unusually high, rising, with its spire, 

 to a height of about 176 ft. Ashwell and North- 

 church towers are the only two in the county which 

 are completely encased with stonework externally. 

 The walls are about 8 It. thick at the base. The 

 tower is of four diminishing stages, with massive 

 buttresses stopping under the fourth stage. Access 

 to the tower is by a turret stair at the south-west 

 angle as far a; the top of the first stage, and thence 

 through a passage-way in the wall to another turret 

 stair at the south-east angle. The stair has a rounded 

 handrail cut out of the solid stone wall. The first 

 stage, inside the church, was formerly covered with a 

 sexpartite vault of stone, but only the wall ribs and 

 corbels now remain. The tower arch is of three 

 subdivided moulded orders, resting on shafts with 

 moulded capitals and bases, of about 1360-70. On 



the west side the arch a! ove the capital! has been 

 much mutilated, no doubt to obtain support for a 

 gallery which has been removed. The west window, 

 which is not central in the tower, has four lights, but 

 the tracery has been much mutilated and repaired 

 with cement. On each face of the second stage of 

 the tower is a long narrow single light, above which 

 is a wide band of square cusped panels set diagonally 

 The third or belfry stage has on each face two lofty 

 arched openings, each of two lights with traceried 

 heads, but much decayed and hidden behind wood 

 lattices. Underneath the openings are arched and 

 cusped panels. The topmost stage is pierced on each 

 side by a two light window with, traceried head. The 

 tower was formerly finished with battlements of 

 which only the corner portions remain. Owing to 

 the soft nature of the clunch the whole of the face 

 work of the tower is in a very decayed condition. 

 The tower is surmounted by a timber spire on an 

 octagonal drum, very similar to that at Baldock, the 

 whole being covered with lead. The following in- 

 scription is in raised letters on the Icadwork : 



S EVtRABl) I 1 





l(..T) I 



• This : 



and 



chantry of the Virgin; ace u 



lM See will of John Bill (1 505) quoted 

 in Cubans' Hut. cfHcm.Odsiy HurJ. 26. 

 An iiid'jlgtn<e was granted probably for 



There are oak traceried and carved 15th-century 

 screens at the west ends of the aisles, removed from 

 the Lady chapel in the south aisle 3 ; there are also 

 some traceried panels of the same period, probably 

 the lower part of the old chancel screen, now made 

 up into a screen behind the organist's stool ; two old 

 carved finials are fixed on the modern end posts. 

 The pulpit is of oak, panelled and carved and dated 

 1627. In the south aisle is an oak chest of early 

 1 7th-century work, and beside the south door is an alms 

 box on a narrow oak pedestal whit h may belong to the 

 same century. The communion table is also of the 

 17th century. The north and south doors are original 

 and have plain old iron hinges. The font is modern, 

 but the steps appear to be original. There are frag- 

 ments of 1 ;th-century glass in some of the clearstory 

 windows, and some of later date in the north aisle. 



At the east end of the north aisle stands a 15th- 

 century tomb, with panelled tracery, much defaced, 

 it bears no inscription ; on the floor of the nave is a 

 brass inscription to John Sell, 1 6 1 8, and in the chancel 

 are three slabs with indents of the 15th century, and 

 a part of another lies at the south door. On the east 

 wall of the nave is a mural tablet to Ralph Baldwyn, 

 1689, with his arms. 



On the north wall of the tower, internally, the 

 following 14th-century inscription has been roughly 

 scratched. The beginnings of the second and third 

 lines are imperfect : 



'xlix 



pcstilecia q'nz 



M.C. T. X penta miserada ferox violeta 



This has been translated by Mr. C. Johnson, M.A.,' 

 s ' 1000, three times 100, five times 10, pitiable, 



» Will of John Bill, ai above. 



« Cuifans, op. ch. Odsty fluid, 3;. 



* See a paper by Mr. C. Johmon in 

 Trans. Si. Albam and him. Arch. Sat 

 1899-1900, p. 277. 



