We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.

St Mary the Virgin, Nassington, Northamptonshire

Location
(52°33′11″N, 0°26′0″W)
Nassington
TL 063 962
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Northamptonshire
now Northamptonshire
  • Ron Baxter

Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=12057.

Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.

Description

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.

History

Royal connections with the manor are recorded in the reign of Cnut, and there was apparently an important Anglo-Saxon church. Nassington was held by the king in 1086, when a priest was recorded. It became the seat of a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral c.1107-16.

Benefice of Nassington with Yarwell and Woodnewton.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Tower/Transept arches
Comments/Opinions

The tower arch and doorway were both carved at c.1180-1200. Capitals and spurred bases similar to those on the tower arch are found at Croughton, associating Nassington with a group that also includes King's Sutton, Kingsthorpe and Hinton-in-the-Hedges.

Bibliography

Victoria County History: Northamptonshire. II (1906)

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, 468-69.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire. Harmondsworth 1961, rev. B. Cherry 1973, 309-10.

P. A. Poyner, A Guide to St Mary and All Saints' Church, Nassington. 1979, repr. 1996.

RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton, VI. Architectural monuments in North Northamptonshire, London 1986, 119-23.

RCHME Report, uncatalogued.