St Nicholas, Great Doddington, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Great Doddington
National Grid Reference: SP 881 648
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: St Nicholas 1521
now (or name of monument): St Nicholas
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from SE.

: Exterior, W end from SE.

: W tower from NW.

: Interior to E.

St Nicholas' has an aisled nave with clerestoreys, chancel and W tower. The nave arcades, aisle windows (where original) and N and S doorways all date from the early 14thc. The S doorway is protected by a porch. The chancel is of a similar date, but the short and stocky three-storey tower is 12thc. in its lower parts, with a round-headed window in the W wall. The W doorway is a 13thc. insertion, and the diagonal buttresses are also later additions. The tower was re-pointed in 1685, according to an inscription on the S face. The saddleback roof described by Bridges was replaced in 1737. The present rooflines are owed to the restoration of 1871. The only piece of Romanesque sculpture is a scallop capital reset in the jamb of the S nave doorway.

IV Interior Features

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

(i) Re-set scallop capital

: S doorway, showing position of reset capital.

: S doorway, E jamb, re-set scallop capital.

Now set in the E jamb of the S nave doorway, opposite the lock. A double-scallop nook-shaft capital with wedges between the cones and grooves outlining the lower edges of the shields. The necking is carved with single strand cable moulding.

Dimensions

h. of block	0.26 m
w. of block	0.29 m
w. of capital	0.13 m

VII History

Countess Judith held 4 hides in Great Doddington in 1086. No church or priest was recorded. Great Doddington formed part of the honour of Huntingdon in the 12thc., and Earl Simon de Senlis II gave the advowson of the church to his house of Cluniac nuns at Delapre, Northamptonshire c.1145-53. RCHME suggests that the tenurial shifts in the honour may have made their possession of the church insecure, and that this may be why they were not confirmed in their possession until the 14thc. A claim was made by Jedburgh Abbey, on the basis of a grant made when the honour was in Scots royal hands.

Benefice of Great Doddington and Wilby.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The nook-shaft capital suggests that there was a 12thc. doorway that was replaced when the aisles were added, and the stones used in their construction, but no other pieces have come to light.

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, 140f.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 232f.
RCHME Report, uncatalogued.
Victoria County History: Northamptonshire, IV (1937), 114-16.