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I Location

II General Description

All Saints' is a stone rubble church with an aisled and clerestoreyed nave, chancel and W tower. The N nave arcade has three late-12thc. bays and a half-bay added at the E end in the 13thc. The 13thc. S arcade covers the same distance in three slightly wider bays. In both arcades the arches are inaccurately positioned on their piers; this is especially marked on pier 2 south and pier 3 north. The clerestorey is a 14thc. addition, and there are N and S doorways under porches. There is no chancel arch, but the chancel may date from c.1300 and has a N chapel (now housing the organ) and vestry. The three-storey west tower is short and unbuttressed. Its arch is late 12thc. but all its windows and its doorway were replaced in the early 14thc. The font is a 13thc. piece, apparently recarved in the 15thc. and again in the 19thc. (Pevsner). A photograph is included but no description. Features described here are the N arcade and the tower arch.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

b. Tower/Transept arches

(i) Tower arch

W arch

Pointed, single order and completely plain and unmoulded save for its chamfered imposts.

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) N arcade

Three bays with pointed arches, and a half bay at the E end. This half-bay has a chamfered, single order arch; full bays 1 and 2 have plain arches with two orders towards the nave and only one towards the aisle; bay 3 has a plain, single-order arch.

Pier 1 is square with chamfered angles towards the E, with a half-column respond to the W. On the E side the arch springs from a hollow chamfered impost with a quirk at the top of the chamfer. To the W the respond has a double roll base with spurs, and a multi-trumpet scallop capital with roll necking. The impost follows the same design as on the E side of the pier.

Pier 2: Cylindrical with spurred base as pier 1. The capital has flat leaves on the angles, their surfaces cut back in a volute design. Similar motifs appear along the faces of the bell, ambiguously carved as either hollowed out leaves or leaf-shaped arrangements of stems. These are not regularly placed. The capital has a square abacus and an impost above of the same form as that of pier 1.

Pier 3: Cylindrical with spurred base as pier 2. The capital is a multi-trumpet scallop as on pier 1, and the impost has the same form as that of pier 1.

W respond: As pier 1, W respond.

VII History

In 1086 the largest landholder in Croughton was Osbern who held one hide and two parts of a virgate from Geoffrey de Mandeville. Smaller parcels were held by Aelfric (from the Bishop of Coutances), and William (from the Count of Mortain). No church or priest was recorded.

edication to All Saints recorded in 1522.

Benefice of Aynho and Croughton with Evenley and Farthinghoe and Hinton-in-the-Hedges with Steane.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Spurred bases are also found at nearby Hinton in the Hedges. The decoration of N arcade pier 2 capital looks like an approximate version of the waterleaf design seen on the E respond of the S arcade at nearby King's Sutton. Something similar appears in the S nave arcade at Kingsthorpe.

IX Bibliography