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I Location

II General Description

All Saints' has an aisled and clerestoreyed nave of four bays with arcades and S aisle windows of c.1300 but Perpendicular windows in the clerestorey and the N aisle. The chancel has a plain 12thc. doorway, and there is another, more elaborate but not much, re-set in the S nave aisle under a Perpendicular porch. A N vestry has been added to the chancel. At the W is a low tower with a bell stage of c.1250-1300. Construction is of irregular stone (aisles and tower) or ashlar (clerestorey and chancel). Included here are the S doorway and the font.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) Nave, S doorway

Round-headed, of one order in jambs, two in arch, re-set. The arch is of two plain orders without moulding or chamfers. The jambs are plain with a slight chamfer and hollow-chamfered imposts with a groove at the bottom of the face. The label is double chamfered and there are label stops in the form of badly worn heads, probably human and possibly not 12thc.

Dimensions

(ii) Chancel, S doorway

Round headed, of one order. Jambs and arch are slightly chamfered. Imposts are hollow chamfered with a groove at the bottom of the face and shaved flush with the wall on the S face. The label is double chamfered with short returns at either end.

Dimensions

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

Located in S aisle to W of S doorway. The bowl is octagonal and chamfered on all its faces from halfway down. One of the eight rectangular faces of the upper part of the bowl is left plain (the W face); the other seven are carved in relief with a central motif flanked by panels of interlace to either side as follows:

E face: A compass-drawn five-petalled daisy, each petal articulated by pointed oval ribs, progressively recessed towards the centre. The spaces between the petals are pseudo-chip-carved in recessed triangular peltae. The daisy is surrounded by a circle in a square, and in the four spandrels of the square are beads surrounded by a wavy-edged triangle. The two panels to left and right are carved with a closed four-strand plait in a regular design of lozenges.

NE face: A compass-drawn Maltese cross with recessed pseudo-chip-carved arms, and between the arms the petals of a four-petalled daisy with a drilled centre. Each petal has a row of cable along the central vein. This central motif is surrounded by a circle in a square, treated as on the E face. The panels to either side are each carved with two rows of two-strand plait, linked at the bottom of each panel.

N face: The central circular field is filled with a regular design of small sexfoil flowers, and is surrounded by a square with little quatrefoils in the spandrels. The panels to either side are carved with a closed two-strand plait in a regular lozenge design.

NW face: The central field is carved with an eight-pointed star made up of two intersecting concave-sided squares, compass drawn. In the centre is a quatrefoil flower with a central boss. The star is surrounded by a circle in a square, with pairs of leaves in the angles. The panels to either side are carved with three-strand plait.

W face: Uncarved.

SW face: In the centre a diagonally disposed quatrefoil daisy, compass-drawn, with a central boss. Each petal is defined by a pair of arcs meeting at the tip, and a ring of cable interlaces through all four petals. The panels to left and right are each carved with a pair of two-strand plaits, made up of arcs, so that the enclosed fields are alternately lozenges and pointed ovals.

S face: In the centre a compass-drawn concave-sided lozenge with a central rose, and four-petalled roses in each of the fields between the sides of the lozenge and the enclosing beaded annulet. The interlace side panels are carved with a single-strand with loose triangular knots.

SE face: In the very centre, a six-petalled daisy with drilled centre. This is surrounded by an open sexfoil, and that by another; the cusps always aligned with the petals of the form next inside. Simple leaves link the cusps of the inner sexfoil to the petals of the outer, and each of the cusps of the outermost sexfoil is carved with a pellet. The design is surrounded by a cable annulet in a square, with foliage forms in the angles. The side panels are carved with repeated four-strand figure-of-eight interlace; three units per side, each linked by a pair of the strands to the next unit.

The upper rim of the bowl has a heavy roll, and there is a slender round encircling the bowl below the carved panels. The bowl has lock damage and is lined with lead.

Dimensions

VII History

Mears Ashby was held by Countess Judith in 1086, being part of the Earl’s Barton estate held previously by Bondi. No church was noted, and RCHME suggests that no church existed until the estate was fragmented in the 12thc. The earliest notice of it is c.1159, when it was given to Aulnay Abbey. The rectory was confiscated by the king in the Hundred Years War, and in 1392 the church passed to the Carthusians in Coventry.

Benefice of Mears Ashby and Hardwick and Sywell with Overstone.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The font may be related to the re-set W doorway at St Peter’s, Northampton, with which it shares motifs, although the Northampton work does not include the Anglo-Saxon style interlace panels. The visual similarity with Islamic or Mozarabic patterns is surely coincidental. Pevsner simply says, 'Norman, octagonal. With rosettes, interlace, etc. The carving is detailed and so sharp that it appears to be retooled.' The present author accepts that it is retooled, or even scrubbed, and suggests a date in the second half of the 12thc. The S nave doorway is practically identical to those at Upton, except for the head stops.

IX Bibliography