St Peter, Aldwincle, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Aldwincle
National Grid Reference: TL 006 819
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: St Peter 1527
now (or name of monument): St Peter
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from SW.

: Exterior from N.

: Interior to E.

St Peter's has an aisled and clerestoreyed nave with three-bay N and south arcades. All the arches of both arcades are pointed with two deeply chamfered orders. These are probably 14thc., but the south arcade's cylindrical piers with moulded and nailhead capitals are 13thc. in date. The N arcade is entirely 14thc., except for one cylindrical pier with a green man capital, which is 12thc. This is the only Romanesque piece in the church. The nave has 14thc. N and S doorways, the S under a 14thc. porch. The chancel and its arch are 14thc., with some 14thc. glass in the south windows. The W tower is 14thc., with diagonal buttresses, reticulated bell-openings and a corbel table. The broach spire above has three rows of lucarnes.

IV Interior Features

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) N arcade

: N nave, arcade from SW.

: N nave, arcade from SE.

: N nave, arcade, pier 2, capital from SE.

: N nave, arcade, pier 2, capital from SW.

: N nave, arcade, pier 2, capital from NW.

: N nave, arcade, pier 2, capital from NE.

Three bays, pointed. All arches are 14thc. and of two chamfered orders to N and south. The ends of the arcade are on 14thc. corbels rather than responds, and pier 1 is also 14thc., with a quatrefoil plan and moulded quatrefoil capital. Pier 2 is 12thc. It is cylindrical, with a chamfered base on a short drum with a rolled edge. The capital is square at the abacus, with a roll necking below, and a bell decorated in deep relief with a human head at each angle with a pair of stems issuing from either side of the mouth. Each stem meets another from the adjacent angle in the centre of each face of the bell, and the junction is marked by a fleshy terminal palmette pointing downwards. Each stem too has a short side shoot running upwards where the main stem leaves the mouth, and terminating in a furled leaf. The heads are all similar, with puffed cheeks, bulging eyes and a marked hairline like a cap. The impost is quirked hollow chamfered.

VII History

Aldwincle St Peter (Eldewincle) was listed among the lands held by men of Peterborough abbey in 1086. It was held by Ferron at the king's command, against the abbot's will. No church was recorded.

Benefice of Aldwincle with Thorpe Achurch and Pilton with Wadenhoe and Stoke Doyle.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Similar green man capitals occur elsewhere in the county, at Isham and Pytchley. Pevsner dates them to the late 12thc.; a date in the 1170s or '80s is suggested here.

IX Bibliography

J. Bridges, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, Compiled from the manuscript collections of the late learned antiquary J.Bridges, Esq., by the Rev. Peter Whalley, Oxford, 1791, II, 212f.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 76f.
RCHME Report, uncatalogued.
Victoria County History: Northamptonshire, III (1930), 171f.