The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"nassington"
Parish church
It is evident that the nave is Anglo-Saxon, since it has a blocked triangular-headed window high in its W wall. A tower was added by the late 12thc. (to which the tower arch belongs), and the reset N doorway dates from the same period. Aisles were added to the nave with four-bay arcades dating from the late 13thc. The aisles have been extended W alongside the tower, incorporating fragments of 13thc. dogtooth, and these spaces are now used as vestries.
The chancel arch dates from the same period as the nave arcades, and the chancel itself was rebuilt in the 15thc. The S nave doorway is set under an early-13thc. porch. Finally, the tower has three storeys of rough stone masonry with a 13thc. W doorway. Above this is a square storey of ashlar and an octagonal storey with battlements. These are Perpendicular, as is the crocketed spire recessed behind the battlement. The church was restored in 1883-85 by J. C. Traylen. Romanesque work is found in the tower arch and the N doorway.
Chapel
St Mary's is a cruciform church to which a three-bay south nave aisle, with an arch to the transept, was added
in the early 13thc. The nave has a 15thc.-16thc. clerestorey on the S wall only. The N transept now houses the
organ, and its arch is 13thc. and pointed, but the transept itself is a modern
rebuild. The S transept arch is late 12thc. and round-headed. The
chancel belongs to the early 13thc. too, but its S
doorway is, stylistically at least, late 12thc., and is included here. The W
tower was rebuilt in the 16thc., and its arch is of reused material. The south
nave doorway is 13thc., under a porch bearing a date
stone of 1662. There is no N doorway. Construction is of stone rubble, much
disturbed. Features described here are the S transept arch and the S
chancel doorway.
Parish church
Apethorpe church lies at the E end of the village, to the NE of
Apethorpe Hall, former seat of the Earls of Westmorland. The building comprises
a W tower (dated 1633), a nave flanked by N and S aisles, a S porch, a chancel and a S chapel
(dated 1621). The fabric dates largely from the late 15thc. and early 17thc.,
and a single chevron
voussoir
re-set in the facing of the N aisle is the only hint that an earlier structure
stood on the site. The S chapel (Mildmay Chapel) contains one of the finest and
most imposing 17thc. tombs in England: that of Sir Anthony Mildmay, attributed
to the sculptor Maximilian Colt. The base of a cross shaft fragment of indeterminate date, possibly 13thc. or
14thc., stands in the churchyard to the S of the porch.
Parish church
St Mary's has an aisled nave with a clerestorey. The nave is more or less rectangular in plan, but the arcades to N and S are differently treated. On the S are five uneven bays; the two western bays round-headed and the remainder pointed. The N arcade piers are more regularly spaced, i.e they are entirely out of step with those on the S. In the N there are three round-headed bays at the W end, then two full-sized pointed bays and a short pointed bay, leading to a vestry and partly blocked with a later doorway inserted. These different arrangements bring the two arcades to roughly the same point, and here the aisleless chancel starts, although there is no masonry chancel arch. The liturgical arrangements have been altered at some time, and a chancel step built right across the nave at S pier 1, which is part-way along the first full-sized bay on the north. This bay now houses the organ, and the liturgical changes have brought it into the chancel. The chancel is short and square-ended, substantially 13thc., although on its E wall are the remains of an earlier round-headed window. The W tower arch is 12thc., but a pointed arch has been inserted to reduce its size. The tower itself has a tall lower storey of rubble with plain 12thc. windows, and to which a 13thc. storey has been added. There are N and S nave doorways, both under 19thc. porches. Romanesque work is found in the nave arcades, the tower arch, the N nave doorway and a piscina set in the S nave aisle. The church was restored by Ewan Christian in 1885-87 (N and S porches, N aisle wall), and by H. F. Traylen and F. J. Lenton in 1933-35 (tower).