Listed Building: Church of St. Mary (1190507)

Church. C13, C14 and C15, chancel partly rebuilt 1833, general later C19 restoration. Coursed squared limestone and ironstone with ironstone dressings, chancel partly rendered, copper, lead and slate roofs. Chancel, vestry, nave, north and south aisles and porches, west tower. 3-bay chancel has 4-light Perpendicular east window with hood mould, 2-light windows north and south with Y-tracery to continuous hood moulds, vestry to north-east with one-light window to north with hood mould, priest's door to north with many moulded arch on shafts with moulded capitals and datestone above inscribed 'REBUILT 1833'; chamfered plinth, diagonal offset buttresses, offset buttresses flanking priest's door and one to south, string course and plain ironstone parapet with stone coping. Nave has low stone-coped east gable. North aisle has 3-light Perpendicular east window, 4-centred head and hood mould, similar windows to north and 2-light west window with Y-tracery and hood mould, double hollow-chamfered north door with hood mould and label stops. North porch has moulded doorway with round-arched head, small rectangular blocked windows east and west, tile roof and stone-coped gable with kneelers. South aisle has 3-light Perpendicular windows to east and south with depressed arch heads and hood moulds, and double hollow-chamfered south door in gabled south porch. Porch has doorway with moulded wood surround and timber lintel, small rectangular windows east and west and sundial in gable. 3- stage west tower has many moulded west door and 3-light Perpendicular window above, both with hood moulds, octagonal timber clock face to middle stage north with timber hood mould, 2-light bell-openings with quatrefoiled heads and hood moulds, and tall battlemented parapet with angle pinnacles. Diagonal buttresses to tower and north aisle. Interior: chancel has 3 arches behind altar with ogee heads, pierced cusps and traces of original colour, renewed piscina and stone brackets either side of east window. Double-chamfered chancel arch with semi-circular responds and shafts to west side with moulded capital to north, stiff-leaf capital to south and pinnacled niche set diagonally in angle between arch and south arcade. 3-bay nave has double-chamfered arches, round-arched to north on circular piers with moulded capitals, pointed to south on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and polygonal responds to south and east end of north aisle. South aisle has piscina and blocked squint with cusped head. Octagonal font with bowl decorated with leaf patterns, probably C17. Another font with eared projections possibly a re-used medieval mortar. Original mid C18 timber reredos now at east end of south aisle with painted commandments framed by pilasters with fruit and flower drops. Good late C19 stained glass east and west windows, a C16 or early C17 painted glass shield in head of south aisle window, old crown glass in chancel windows, some quarries scratched with names and dates, ear Thomas Parbery 1790, Plumber, another Thomas Coles Wm Sharp Brackley May 9 1807. Brasses to Thomas Lovett of Astwell Castle d.1492 and wife; Constance Butler d.1499; Thomas Lovett d.1542 and wife, all in south aisle; a knight of c.1460, Sir Thomas Billing, Chief Justice, d.1481 and wife, both in nave and from Bittlesdon Abbey, Buckinghamshire. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.441-2; Kelly's Directory for Northamptonshire, 1928).

Record last edited

Jan 18 2024 4:15PM