St Luke, Duston, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Duston
National Grid Reference: SP 725 611
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: Our Lady 1522
now (or name of monument): St Luke
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Plan of St Luke's Church, Duston, 1983. © Crown copyright. NMR.

: Exterior from SW.

: Exterior from S.

: Exterior from N.

: Exterior from W.

: Interior to W.

: Interior to NE.

St Luke's was originally a cruciform church and retains its central tower. The form of the original nave is visible on the W facade, and apparently had no aisles. The nave has N and S aisles, extended eastwards to subsume the former transepts, providing N and S chapels. The N chapel now houses lavatories and a kitchen, and the S is used as a vestry. The crossing has narrow arches to N and S, and broader, taller ones to E and W. All four are apparently 14thc., as is the upper part of the tower, although the lower storey may be 12thc. The nave has a clerestorey on the S side only, and there are N and S doorways in the aisles, the S early 13thc. under a porch, and the W windows are also 13thc. work. The three-bay nave arcades and the aisle windows date from c.1300, but the W respond of the S arcade is 12thc. An altar has been installed at the W end of the nave in addition to that at the E end of the chancel, to make St Luke's a double-ended church with the two liturgical spaces separated by the crossing. The font is 12thc.

IV Interior Features

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) S arcade, W respond

: S nave, arcade from NE.

: S nave, arcade, W respond, capital.

The rest of the arcade is of c.1300 with pointed arches and moulded capitals carried on octagonal piers. The W respond is an attached half-column with no base carrying a half-round multi-scallop capital with pyramid wedges between the cones, square necking, and plain chamfered impost above, also semicircular in section.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

1.

: Font from E.

In the S aisle, W of the S doorway. The lead-lined bowl is inaccurately circular, plain in the upper part, which has a roll rim, and tapered in the lower part, which is decorated with vertical fluting with a scalloped upper edge. The lower rim has a square moulding. The bowl stands on a circular chamfered plinth, and this on a circular step and a modern square step.

Dimensions

h. of bowl (including lower rim)	0.55 m
h. of bowl (without lower rim)	0.48 m
overall h. (without modern step)	0.895 m
ext. diam. at rim	0.80 m
int. diam. at rim	0.59 m

VII History

William Peverel held Duston in 1086. No church or priest were recorded at that time, but the church was given by William Peverel II to the abbey of St James, Northampton as part of its foundation endowment, perhaps in the 1150s. The church itself was first mentioned in a grant by Earl Simon, dateable 1148-59.

Benefice of St Luke Duston and St Francis Duston (the Duston Team).

VIII Comments/Opinions

The font at Eydon also has fluting in its lower part, and is even less accurately shaped than this one.

IX Bibliography

G. Baker, The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton, 2 vols, London, 1822-41, I, 144f.
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, I, 499-501.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 358.
RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton, V. Archaeological sites and churches in Northampton, London, 1985, 257-63.
RCHME Report, uncatalogued.