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Orton, Northamptonshire

Location
(52°24′27″N, 0°48′59″W)
Orton
SP 806 795
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Northamptonshire
now Northamptonshire
medieval not confirmed
  • Ron Baxter

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Description

All Saints was a chapel of Rothwell until 1964, when it became redundant by 1966. It now houses the Orton Trust, founded in 1968 to teach traditional stonemasonry techniques. The nave is 12thc., with a blocked window remaining in the S wall. This now has an aisle of three bays with a 14thc. arcade. There is a 14thc. clerestorey on the S side, but not on the N where the nave is lighted by two tall windows, apparently 19thc. but with Y-tracery. The chancel is 19thc. work, but the plain chancel arch is 12thc. The unbuttressed W tower of three stepped storeys has a plain 13thc. lancet on the S wall and early-14thc. bell-openings. It was extensively restored and the chancel rebuilt in 1887. There is a 12thc. font decorated with human and animal heads.

History

In 1086 Orton belonged to the extensive royal manor of Rothwell. Orton was not separately assessed, but there was no mention of a church or a priest in Rothwell. The church was formerly a chapelry of Rothwell parish, and is now owned by the Orton Trust.

Dedication formerly All Saints.

Features

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

Pevsner suggests that the font may be 13thc., but the present author prefers a mid-12thc. date. All four heads are damaged at the bottom, suggesting that the bowl may have rested on them at some time, or that they were used for lifting it. The horse's head and ram's head motifs also appear in the form of corbels at St Peter's, Northampton, and in fact they are relatively common in corbel sculpture throughout E-central England, presumably originally from Ely. The form of the font may be compared locally with Harlestone, which is later and has four projecting human heads on the support.

Bibliography

RCHME Report, uncatalogued.

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, 66.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, Harmondsworth, 1961, rev. by B. Cherry, 1973, 361.