St Michael and All Angels, Great Creaton, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Great Creaton
National Grid Reference: SP 706 718
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: St Michael 1520
now (or name of monument): St Michael and All Angels
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from S.

St Michaels has a nave with a S aisle, added in 1857, and no clerestorey, chancel with a N organ niche, and a short 14thc. W tower. The S arcade is of three bays and there is no nave doorway on this side. The N doorway, under a porch, is of c.1200 and is the only Romanesque feature of the church.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) N nave doorway

: N nave doorway.

: N nave doorway, E label stop.

: N nave doorway, E capital.

: N nave doorway, W capital.

: N nave doorway, W label stop

Pointed, single order. The arch is plain and chamfered with simple chamfer stops, and is carried on attached, coursed nook-shafts with attic bases and worn waterleaf capitals with tall abaci and no imposts. The capitals have lost their neckings, if they had any. The label is double chamfered with worn human head stops, the east better preserved.

Dimensions

h. of opening	2.54 m
w. of opening	1.11 m

VII History

Creaton was held by Gunfrid de Chocques in 1086. No church or priest was recorded.

Benefice of Cottesbrooke with Great Creaton and Thornby.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Pevsner suggests a late 12thc. date for the doorway despite the pointed, chamfered head, presumably on the grounds of the waterleaf capitals and attic bases.

IX Bibliography

J. H. Parker, Architectural Notices of the Churches of the Archdeaconry of Northampton,London and Oxford, 1849, 242.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 232.