St Helen, Great Oxendon, Northamptonshire

I Location

Site Location: Great Oxendon
National Grid Reference: SP 736 839
County: traditional: Northamptonshire
now: Northamptonshire
Diocese: medieval: Lincoln
now: Peterborough from 1539
Dedication: medieval: St Helen 1514
now (or name of monument): St Helen
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: Exterior from S.

: Interior to E.

St Helen's stands alongside the busy A508, the main road from Northampton to Market Harborough, from which a short and extremely steep track provides access, clearly not the original means of approach. Its location, in open fields 0.4 miles N of the present village of Great Oxendon can only be explained by assuming that it also originally served medieval Little Oxendon, now a deserted village 0.5 miles to NW. The small size of these two holdings given in Domesday adds weight to this assumption. The present village of Little Oxendon lies 0.5 miles to the W of the church. The rolling countryside provides a convincing explanation for the abnormal height of a tower built to be seen from both medieval settlements. The church has an aisled nave, chancel and W tower. The nave has no clerestorey and three-bay arcades, the N 14thc. with pointed arches carried on quatrefoil piers with ballflower on the moulded capitals; the S 13thc., similar but with cylindrical piers and no ballflower. The nave doorways are 14thc. and protected by porches, the N porch blocked to form a vestry. The chancel arch is 14thc. too, but largely replaced; the chancel is very plain. At the W end the tower arch is tall and Perpendicular. The tower itself is extremely tall and of four storeys with a battlement. The two lower storeys are buttressed and the upper ones are set back in steps. The W tower window is Perpendicular while the bell-openings have replaced heads. The font is Romanesque, and is the only feature described here.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

: Font from W.

: Font bowl from SE.

Towards the W end of the S aisle. The bowl is oval, or more precisely rectangular with rounded angles, the long axis lying SW to NE. It is decorated with two horizontal bands of nested chevron encircling it, with just the return for a third band forming a rim. The bowl is lined with lead, and is badly eroded with mortar repairs to the surface. It stands on a cylindrical drum on a chamfered base and a damaged chamfered plinth to which repairs have been attempted. It appears to be in need of major conservation.

Dimensions

h. of bowl	0.40 m
overall h. of font	1.00 m
ext. w. of bowl (long axis)	0.70 m
ext. w. of bowl (short axis)	0.68 m

VII History

In 1086, 1 hide and 1 virgate in Great Oxendon belonged to the royal manor of Rothwell, and a further hide was held by Ulf from Countess Judith. Little Oxendon (1 hide and the third part of 1 virgate) was held by Humphrey from the Count of Mortain.

Benefice of Arthingworth and Harrington with Oxendon and East Farndon.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 236.