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I Location

II General Description

Hauxton has kept its 12thc. aisleless nave and chancel, and the chancel arch between them. The nave terminates at the E end with angle-rolled buttresses. The chancel had an apse originally but is now square-ended. Transepts were added to the nave, but have been removed. The W tower, with its tower arch, is plain Perpendicular. A storeroom has been added to the nave, approached from within through the completely plain N doorway. Construction is of flint and pebble rubble with render on the chancel. 12thc. carved features are the S doorway, one nave window, the chancel arch and possibly the font.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) S nave doorway

Round-headed with tympanum and lintel, two orders.

The tympanum is plain and made up of six blocks. It rests on a monolithic lintel, which is chip-carved with two rows of saltires in squares. The jambs supporting this are plain and square.

Second order: detached en-delit nook shafts on attic bases supporting double scallop capitals with plain neckings and hollow chamfered imposts with angle rolls between face and chamfer. The W capital has beading around the lower edge of each shield and wedges between the scallops; the E capital has trefoil leaves in recessed shields and rolls between the scallops. In the arch is a fat angle roll.

Dimensions

2. Windows

The church has four small round-headed windows, one to N and one to S of nave and chancel. Of these only one has carving on it:

(i) S wall of nave

Round-headed, single order. The rectangular monolithic head is carved with three rows of quatrefoils, the leaves fluted, with pellets in the interstices.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

a. Chancel arch/Apse arches

(i) Chancel arch

Round-headed, two orders to W and 1 to E.

First order (shared): paired half-columns on attic bases supporting cushion capitals with plain neckings and chamfered imposts with a double groove on the face. In the arch, a fat roll to E and W, then on the W face a double step, and on the E a single step.

Second order (W face only): the supports are lost, but on the S is a block-shaped base with plain necking, suggesting that there were originally nook shafts. There are impost to N and S, the N cut back flush with the wall and the S a replacement. In the arch is an angle roll.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

Under W tower, an octagonal tapered bowl standing on an impost-like block with a deep groove in the chamfer and a roll edge to the upper face. This in turn stands on five shafts, the outer ones simple cylinders with plain neckings at the top only, and the central one octagonal with an integral cushion capital. The inside of the basin is round and lead lined.

Dimensions

VII History

VIII Comments/Opinions

The S doorway, windows and chancel arch are presumably original to the building and must date from c.1100. The chancel arch arrangement with paired half columns and a second-order nook shaft also occurs at Isleham Priory, although the forms of the cushion capitals differ. Johnson notes that the E capital of the doorway has a close parallel on the S doorway of St Mary Magdalene's chapel, Cambridge. The chip-carved lintel is comparable to work at Little Abington, and the quatrefoil diapering of the window head is the same as work on window heads at Little Abington and St Mary Magdalene's, Cambridge. She suggests that the same local or itinerant workshop was responsible for both Hauxton and St Mary Magdalene's.

IX Bibliography