St Andrew, Broughton, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Broughton
National Grid Reference: SP 837 758
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: St Andrew 1521
now (or name of monument): St Andrew
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from SE.

: Interior to E.

St Andrew's has a clerestoreyed and aisled nave with three-bay 14thc. arcades. The chancel and its arch are 14thc. too, as are the clerestorey and the aisle windows. The chancel was in fact rebuilt in 1828. The W tower is of c.1300, and has a broach spire. What remains of the 12thc. church is the masonry at the SW angle of the nave and the S doorway, now reset and protected by a porch.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) S nave doorway

: S nave, doorway.

: S nave, doorway, W side, arch.

: S nave, doorway, arch.

: S nave, doorway, W side, capital.

: S nave, doorway, E side, capital.

Round-headed, two ordersFirst order. Plain jambs with the simplest chamfered imposts, perhaps replacements, carrying and arch curiously carved with lozenge-shaped recesses in low relief on the face, point-to-point with a sawtooth edge to the soffit, leaving a row of lozenge-shaped notches on the angle, each occupied by a round pellet.

Second order. Coursed nook-shafts with carved capitals. The W is a double scallop with wedges between the cones and dished shields, each bearing a single drilled bead. It has a double-roll necking. The E has a cone on each face, like a single scallop capital, but instead of shields each cone is recessed, the recess crudely carved with a triangular human head in relief. Its necking is a plain roll. The arch is more conventionally carved than that of the first order, with centripetal chevron point-to-point on face and soffit, producing empty lozenges on the angle. The top of the arch shows signs of disturbance, and several of the voussoirs are replacements. The label has a chamfer on the inner angle and a low roll between fillets on the face.

Dimensions

h. of opening	2.10 m
w. of opening	1.15 m

VII History

The great manor of Rothwell included half a hide in Broughton in 1086. The remaining hide and a half was held by Countess Judith. Between 1155 and 1166 Roger de Clare, earl of Hrtford, transferred land and the advowson of Broughton to the Cluniac house of nuns at Delapre, Northants.

Benefice of Broughton with Loddington and Cransley and Thorpe Malsor.

VIII Comments/Opinions

No close comparison is available locally for the form of the chevron ornament. The accompanying capitals suggest a relatively early date, c.1150-60.

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, 86f.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 128f.
RCHME Report, uncatalogued.
R. M. Serjeantson and H. I. Longden, 'The Parish Churches and Religious Houses of Northamptonshire: their Dedications, Altars, Images and Lights', Archaeological Journal, 70, ns 20 (1913), 289.
Victoria County History: Northamptonshire, IV (1937), 160f.