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I Location

II General Description

St Denys has a nave without aisles but with a clerestorey on the S side. It retains its wooden W gallery, now housing the organ. It has a W tower, a chancel with a 19thc. E window in a 14thc. style and porches covering the N and S nave doorways. The N porch was converted into a vestry in 1881, and the N doorway retains some of its 12thc. sculpture. The S porch is dated 1696. A stained glass window installed by the vicar Gregory Bateman in 1882 in memory of his wife shows the interior and exterior of the church.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) N nave doorway

One order with tympanum. The doorway has been greatly modified and at least partly rebuilt, so that it does not project from the wall except for the segmental chamfered hood-mould that partly surrounds the tympanum. This has been invaded from below by a pointed opening whose arch springs from the neckings of the capitals rather than the imposts above, so that the original jambs are lost and the capitals have lost most of their inner surfaces. The present jambs are square but carry double-scallop capitals whose roll neckings were designed for nook-shafts. The shields of the scallops have fat roll rims and drilled central bosses, while the cones have wedges between them. The heavy imposts have been cut away on their inner faces, and the front faces are badly eroded. The W is the better preserved and has a quirked chamfer below a face with a low roll at the bottom. The tympanum, or rather the space between the imposts and the label, is filled in its upper part by some ten uneven blocks of stone, uncarved and mortared into place without any attempt at coursing. Below these is a worn and chip-carved lintel, cut into by the apex of the pointed opening. It is carved in low relief with a row of six circles carrying crosses with a pellet in each quadrant. The design is outlined by a groove, and the block has a roll marking its lower edge. No measurements were taken.

VII History

Cold Ashby was one of twenty four villages bestowed on the Abbey of Coventry by Earl Leofric, the founder, in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). Coventry's holding of two hides and a half is recorded in the Domesday Survey, along with half a hide held by William from the Count of Mortain, a virgate and a half held by Drogo from William Peverel, and two and a half virgates belonging to Geoffrey de la Guerche's manor of Welford, held from him by Alvred. The situation was complicated further by the fact that the soke was held by the manor of Winwick. The church of Cold Ashby along with that at West Haddon, was given to Daventry Priory by Hugh Poer, the Abbot of Coventry's consent to the grant dating from 1150. The abbot's consent protected the rights of Winwick church over both of these churches. Winwick's rights as a mother church to Cold Ashby were still in force in 1367, when there was a dispute over the amount of pension owed to the rector of Winwick by the vicar of Cold Ashby.

Benefice of Guilsborough with Hollowell and Cold Ashby.

VIII Comments/Opinions

There is some similarity between the chip-carving of the lintel and that of the reset relief at Weekley.

IX Bibliography