Church Of Saint Peter And Saint Paul

Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Abington Park

The oldest surviving part of this church is the late 12th-century tower, though little remains of the original nave to which it was attached. The nave, aisles and much of the east end were demolished and rebuilt in 1823 following a collapse during a storm in 1821. A late 12th-century doorway is reset in the present south wall, though it is unclear whether the former south aisle also dates to the late 12th century. The chancel was lengthened in the 13th century, by which time the church also had aisles. Further work was undertaken in the 15th century, probably including rebuilding the aisles and work on the chancel. The church was refurnished in the late 17th or very early 18th century, and retains several pieces from that period. It was substantially rebuilt in 1823 and restored in 1874. Many other furnishings, including the west gallery, date to the early 20th century.

The building is constructed of coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble. The 1823 windows are unusually of timber. The interior is partly plastered and partly stripped.

The plan is unusual: a very wide nave of 44 feet without aisles, with north and south porches, a west tower and north vestry. The chancel has chapels to the north and south of differing lengths, neither extending the full length of the chancel, with a west gallery in the nave. This distinctive arrangement results from the 1823 rebuilding on older foundations of a formerly aisled nave. The aisles were removed and the nave roofed in a single span, but the former widths of the aisles are preserved in the chancel chapels.

The embattled, unbuttressed west tower has four stages, with two-light windows in the bell stage and blocked 12th-century lancets in the stage below. An inscription records repair in 1957. A small, segmental-headed west doorway sits below a two-light Decorated west window, beneath a large sundial. The single wide roof of the nave gives the exterior a somewhat squat appearance. The nave windows are of three lights with intersecting Y-tracery made of timber, an interesting and unusual survival of the sort of "churchwardens' gothic" which was once common. The south porch has a double chamfered outer doorway, probably a survival from the medieval church, and an inner doorway of around 1200 with a pointed arch of three square orders on moulded imposts. The southeast chapel has a three-light medieval south window with cusped lights but no east window. The northeast chapel has a late Perpendicular east window. The east wall of the northeast chapel preserves the scar of an earlier low-pitched roof. The chancel has square-headed Perpendicular windows on its north and south faces. The east wall was rebuilt in 1823 and has a Y-tracery window like those in the nave. The east gable wall has coped merlons projecting above the roofline, creating an embattled effect. The 1938 vestries on the north side of the nave have shouldered-headed east and west doorways and a plain parapet.

The interior features a wide, hollow-chamfered 15th-century chancel arch on moulded capitals and polygonal responds. Lower, narrower flanking arches of similar design lead from the nave into the chancel chapels. The tower arch has two plain, square orders with a hood mould, now framed by a rectangular area of stripped stonework in an otherwise plastered and painted nave. The west gallery of 1922 has a fielded panelled front on square columns. The nave ceiling has a decorative plaster roundel. The north wall of the chancel, now internal, has a splayed lancet window. In the south wall is a late Perpendicular sedilia. The chancel has an early 20th-century panelled dado and a flat, plastered ceiling of 1823 with a coved cornice. The south chancel chapel is dominated by the large monument to Judge William Thursby (died 1700), which occupies almost the entire east wall.

The principal fittings include a three-seat, late Perpendicular sedilia in the chancel with trefoiled heads on finely moulded shafts, exposed during restoration in 1874 and seemingly almost entirely unrestored. There is also a piscina. A 15th-century octagonal font has a bowl carved with roses, leaves, shields and quatrefoils on an octagonal stem with blind tracery. Royal arms of around 1660 hang over the tower arch. A fine pulpit in the style of Grinling Gibbons, dating to around 1700, features a very large tester. The hexagonal pulpit has fielded panels and cherubs with swags of fruit, flowers and corn. The matching tester has cartouches under arched pediments. Turned altar rails also date to around 1700. A painted timber Gothic Revival reredos with a crucifixion is dated 1921. An elaborate timber Gothic Revival lectern was made in 1916. Stained glass includes the east window of 1862 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne and the east window of the north chapel by John Piper, installed in 1981.

The church contains numerous monuments. In the chancel are the remains of a brass to William Mayle (died 1536) and Margaret his wife (died 1567), which formerly had figures of husband and wife, ten sons and three daughters. In the northeast chapel are two chest tombs to Sir Edmund Hampden (died 1627) and his wife Elinor (died 1634). The southeast chapel is filled with monuments to the Thursbys, including two large white marble wall monuments by Samuel Cox commemorating Richard Thursby and his father Downhall (died 1733), the latter with a tablet with an open pediment and a bust. The largest and most ambitious is to Judge William Thursby (died 1730) by Samuel Cox I, featuring a standing figure in barrister's robes flanked by Ionic pilasters with a baldacchino and drapery swags. Elizabeth, Lady Bernard, Shakespeare's granddaughter, is reputed to be buried in the vault below the chapel; her name was added to her husband's ledger slab (died 1673) in 1902.

The churchyard wall towards the road has piers with Gothic tracery and lower walling topped by cast-iron railings, and appears to be contemporary with the 1820s rebuilding. The church stands immediately to the southeast of Abington Museum, the former manor house, with which it forms a group.

Abington was subsumed into Northampton in 1900 but continues to function as an independent ecclesiastical parish. The church at Abington is first mentioned in the 13th century, but the tower and south door are 12th-century, and the double-square plan of the former nave suggests that the core of the church dates to the Norman period. The church now stands in isolation next to Abington Museum, but this does not reflect its medieval history; the medieval village was depopulated and enclosed in the 17th century to create a better setting for the house. The church reflects its close links to the manor in the post-medieval period, particularly in the fine collection of tombs related to the families who lived at Abington Park, notably the Hampdens and Thursbys.