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All Saints, King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire

Location
(52°33′44″N, 0°30′57″W)
King's Cliffe
TL 007 971
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Northamptonshire
now Northamptonshire
  • Ron Baxter

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Feature Sets
Description

All Saints' is a cruciform church with a 12thc. crossing tower. The tower arches have been replaced; those to east and west in the 13thc., those to north and south in the 15thc. Nave and transepts are 14th-15thc., the nave aisled with four-bay arcades and clerestoreys, all Perpendicular. Both nave doorways are under porches, the north with a datestone of the 1660s. The tower was heightened in the late 13thc., and a broach spire added, with new bell-openings straddling tower and spire. Romanesque sculpture is found in the original bell-openings, the west opening now inside the nave.

History

The villa was held by the king in 1086, but it had belonged to Earl Algar before the Conquest, rather than to King Edward. King's Cliffe became a royal residence after the Conquest. The church was given to Bernard the Scribe by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester between 1107 and 1123. RCHME's uncatalogued report suggests that Giffard obtained it from Henry I. Bernard was a benefactor of Merton Priory, and Merton held the advowson thereafter, and throughout the Middle Ages.

Benefice of Isham with Pytchley.

Features

Exterior Features

Windows

Comments/Opinions

The tower and its original bell-openings must date from c.1100.

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, 430-32.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire. Harmondsworth 1961, rev. B. Cherry 1973, 276-77.

RCHME, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton, VI. Architectural monuments in North Northamptonshire, London 1986, 91-96.

RCHME Report, uncatalogued.