Building record 727/4/1 - St. Lawrence's Church

13th-15th centuries. Restored 1835-6, and 1883 by J.L. Pearson. Nave roof of 1958. Chancel, vestry, north and south chancel chapels, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and west tower. Coursed limestone and ironstone rubble and coursed squared limestone, lead roofs.

{1} Church. C13, C14, C15. Restored 1835-6, and 1883 by J.L. Pearson. Nave roof of 1958. Chancel, vestry, north and south chancel chapels, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and west tower. Coursed limestone and ironstone rubble and coursed squared limestone, lead roofs. 5-bay chancel has 5-light Perpendicular east window, 3-light Decorated windows north and south with curvilinear tracery and 3-light clerestory windows with cinquefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. Rectangular crypt windows to north-east and south-east with chamfered stone surrounds. Vestry to north has chamfered Tudor-arched north door and 2-light chamfered mullion window to right with cut spandrels. Chancel chapels continue aisles and overlap chancel. North chapel has 3-light east window with simple C18 or early C19 tracery with crown glass quarries, and 3-light windows to north with cinquefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. South chapel has 4-light east window with Tudor-arched head, wide outer cinquefoil-headed ogee-arched lights and inner pointed trefoil-headed lights. Windows to south, are similar to those to north of north chapel. Similar windows to aisles, except for 2-light straight-headed window to west of south porch. North aisle has chamfered pointed arched door to west in wider part-blocked doorway. Projecting stair turret to former gallery of rood screen between north aisle and chancel chapel. Many-moulded south door with hood mould in south porch, which has doorway with hollow chamfer and sunk quadrant inner moulding and hood mould and 2-light Decorated windows north and south with pointed trefoil-headed lights and 4-centred heads. Tall 3-stage west tower has many-moulded west doorway with fleurons to deep hollow-chamfered surround with ogee-arched hood mould within panelled recess with moulded straight-headed surround; old double-leaf studded doors. 3-light Perpendicular window above. Walling at this level banded with limestone. Small 2-light window to south of middle stage with cinquefoil-headed lights. 2-light bell-chamber openings. Diagonal buttresses and battlemented parapet. Plain stone-coped parapets to rest of church. Chancel has set-back buttresses. Offset buttresses to south aisle and chapel and to south-west angle of south aisle. All windows except those to crypt have hood moulds. Interior: chancel has C17 tie-beam trusses and purlins. Sanctuary raised over stone-vaulted crypt with chamfered ribs and ridge ribs and slender square piers without capitals; tomb recess to east and aumbry to north, 2-bay arcades between chancel and chapels with double-chamfered arches; octagonal pier to north, circular pier to south with 4 circular shafts in diagonals. Mid C19 chancel arch incorporates two Romanesque shafts, that to north circular with lozenge decoration, that to south octagonal with zig-zag ornament; south chancel chapel has wide ogee-arched niche between south windows with cinquefoiled head and crocketed hood mould, and Pelican in her Piety painted on back wall and small image bracket just below sill. Double-chamfered arch to south aisle, innermost on carved figure corbels. Nave has 4-bay arcades with octagonal piers, polygonal responds and double-chamfered arches; 3 re-used C13 capitals, one with waterleaf decoration. Triple-chamfered tower arch, innermost on polygonal responds. Octagonal font with panelled bowl on crocketed nodding ogee arches. Fragments of C15 stained glass in east window of south chapel including arms of Archdeacon Sponne from Talbot Inn. East window of 1885, other C19 stained glass windows to south aisle. Monuments: table tomb of William Sponne, a chaplain of Henry VI, rector of Towcester and archdeacon of Norfolk, d.1448, with restored effigy and cadaver below. Alabaster wall monument to Jerome Farmore d.1602 with small kneeling figures facing each other at prayer desk in scalloped niches, flanked by Corinthian colonettes. Marble wall monument to Mary Hastings d.1686 with Corinthian columns supporting volutes either side of urn. Stone wall monument to Mary Hodges d.1759 with broken segmental pediment framing urn and signed Jn. Middleton. Veined marble mid C18 wall monument to William Benson with cherubs' heads and urn finial. (Kelly's Directory for Northamptonshire, 1928).

{9} (SP 69404869) St Lawrences Church.

{10} Minor rescue excavation carried out by Charmian Woodfield in 1983, as a result of work being carried out adjacent to boiler room.

{11} Church, 13th, 14th and 15th century church. Restored 1835-6, and 1883 by J.L.Pearson.

{13} Church Primary record Number 22 251, dedicated to St Lawrence.

{14} There is no pre-Conquest evidence, either documentary or archaeological, for the church, although it could be suggested that it was in fact a Saxon minster serving Towcester’s dependencies. It was, however, certainly in existence in the immediate post-Conquest period, for William I granted the advowson to the abbey of Fontanelle. The 1392 Survey recorded that the advowson belonged to Bradenstoke Priory.
Bequests to the altars and lights within the parish church attest the importance of agriculture to the community: a two-year-old bullock, an ox-calf aged 12 weeks, three ewes and three lambkins, a quarter of barley, two strikes of malt.
The surviving fabric indicates a large and important church building from the twelfth century, arcaded with north and south aisles around 1200. The Chancel was subsequently extended to the east over a crypt at the start of the fifteenth century; the crypt presumably being used as a charnel house for burials disturbed in the extension.
A large west gallery was erected in 1627, and the chancel roof replaced 13 years later. In 1872 the chacel was restored by Ewan Christian and the chancel arch installed; the nave was restored by Pearson in 1882.
It was perhaps as a result of the establishment of the chantry chapel in 1451 that parts of the church were rebuilt some years later. Both aisles were rebuilt and also the tower, a spire may have been added and a clerestory inserted over the nave and chancel. The costs would have been substantial and Edward IV granted the parishioners ‘in reliefe of the grete importable costs and charges by the said pa’ishens susteigned in buylding and reparacione of their steple, churche and churcheyerde, as moche stone as they shulde fynde within the circuyt and compasse of 40 feet every way square, within any place in his querrey in the bailifwycke of Hanley in the forest of Whitelwode.’ This grant was subsequently confirmed by Richard III.

{17} Description of memorial and outline of plans for restoration.

{19} Earlier material has been reused in the church. Two elaborately-carved 12thc. Shafts have been incorporated into the (largely 19thc.) chancel arch; three of the capitals of the nave arcades are recycled 12thc. Pieces; and several chevron voussoirs have been incorporated into the masonry above the arcade in the S aisle.

{21} Head of effigy of Archdeacon Sponne at Towcester Church, Northamptonshire. The effigy is of stone, originally with painted wooden head and hands, which were exchanged for rather grotesque florid replacements in 1884. The head and hands were lost until turning up in the attics of the vicarage in the early 1980s. The monument was relocated in 1835, thus some interference of that date might be expected. Two radiocarbon samples from the head were submitted. The aim of the dating exercise is to demonstrate whether the wooden head and hands were the originals, of
c 1448, or were of later date.

{24} Undated photo.

{25} Dendrochronological survey of timbers in the tower was undertaken. Four large timbers supporting the ceiling to the ringing chamber were sampled. Only one was dated, giving a likely felling date range of AD 1468-1501. It is thought that this timber is associated with the intial construction of the tower, suggesting a construction date in the latter half of the 15th century. This date fits in with a reference found by brian Giggins stating that Edward IV gave forty square feet of stone from his quarry at Handley in the Forest of Whittlebury for building and repairing the steeple, church and churchyard at Towcester.

{26} Plans of the church; two of 1836 and one of 1883.

{27} The surviving medieval glass is located in the east window of the south chancel chapel. A Sponne shield features.

{28} Drawings, notes, sketches, measurements, photo, rubbings, plans, including some showing Roman remains;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/126 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F08 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.433-34 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> Woodfield P., 1992, Towcester Retail Development: Historic Landscape Assessment, (checked) (Full Report). SNN46827.

<5> DRAWINGS, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN56537.

<6> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.275-78 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<7> ATWELL J., TOWCESTER PARISH CHURCH, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN56536.

<8> Glynne S., 1859, Church Notes of Sir Stephen Glynne, (unchecked) (Manuscript). SNN39492.

<9> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), OS 6" 1955 (Map). SNN112944.

<10> Woodfield C., 1984, Letter and plans relating to excavation at St Lawrence Church, (unchecked) (Note). SNN47600.

<11> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, p.62-63 (uncheckec) (Catalogue). SNN40898.

<12> Woodfield C., 1983, TOWCESTER DEANERY MAGAZINE, (unchecked) (Discussion). SNN47599.

<13> Serjeantson R.M.; Ryland W. (Editors), 1906, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.181 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100369.

<14> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 3.3.1 (Report). SNN103132.

<15> Knowles; Hadcock, 1971, Medieval Religious Houses England and Wales, p.355 (unchecked) (Book). SNN10192.

<16> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP64NE15 (unchecked) (Index). SNN443.

<17> Atwell, J., 1991, Sponne Memorial, Towcester Parish Church, (unchecked) (Letter). SNN107036.

<18> Walker, A.J. & Otlet, R.L., 1988, Harwell Radiocarbon Measurements VI, (unchecked) (Article). SNN107312.

<19> King's College, London, 2017, A corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, Site 216 (Website). SNN110894.

<20> Poor Law Union, 1855, Towcester Poor Law Union Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN105243.

<21> Bloxham M.H., 1878, On The Medieval Sepulchral Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.246-7+53 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN107097.

<22> Jordan, D, Hedges, R, Otlet, R, Switsur, R and Walker, J, 1994, Radiocarbon Dates from samples funded by English Heritage between 1981 and 1988, p. 285 (Monograph). SNN112643.

<23> Historic England, Undated, St Lawrence's Church, Towcester, BF044031 (Archive). SNN113177.

<24> Photographs of buildings in Towcester (Photographs). SNN114425.

<25> Bridge, M and Tyers, C, 2023, Church of St Lawrence, Moat Lane, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Tree-ring Dating of Oak Timbers in the West Tower (Report). SNN115371.

<26> Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archive, ICBS01844, ICBS01844a, ICBS08769 (Digital archive). SNN115761.

<27> Marks R., 1998, Stained Glass Of Northamptonshire, p. 278-9 (Book). SNN101533.

<28> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/274/2,4,13-44 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Dec 17 2024 9:36AM