Church Of St Mary Magdalen

Church of St Mary Magdalen

This is a church of 14th and 15th-century origins, substantially restored in 1869 by the architect G.E. Street. It is built in coursed limestone rubble with lead and copper roofs.

The building comprises a chancel, north chancel chapel, aisled nave, north and south porches, and a west tower.

The chancel, of 3 bays, features a 5-light east window with a 4-centred head and Perpendicular tracery, and similar 3-light windows to the south, all with hood moulds. A chamfered priest's door to the south has a 4-centred head, old plank door and hood mould with label stops, together with offset angle buttresses. The north chancel chapel extends the north aisle for 1 bay and contains a 3-light east window with curvilinear tracery, a similar window at the west end of the aisle, and 3-light windows to the north with reticulated tracery, all with hood moulds. A many-moulded north doorway with ridged plank door is set in a 2-storey porch incorporating a re-set late Norman or Transitional doorway with 3 orders of shafts, stylized leaf capitals, and a round-headed arch with hollow-chamfer decorated with dog-tooth lozenges and zigzag.

The south aisle has 3-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and hood moulds with label stops. A double hollow-chamfered south door with ridged plank door is set in a porch with a similar doorway. Above the doorway is an ogee-arched cinquefoil-headed niche with hood mould and 2-light windows to the east and west sides, with straight heads and hood moulds with label stops.

The tower rises in 3 stages and features a double-hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded west doorway with studded double-leaf doors and quatrefoils to the spandrels, a moulded rectangular stone surround and hood mould. Above this is a 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. Large polygonal stone clock-faces appear on the north and west faces, with a small 1-light window to the south and 2-light bell-chamber openings. The tower has diagonal offset buttresses, a battlemented parapet and an ogee lead roof with a weathervane at the apex. The body of the church has plain stone-coped parapets.

Interior

The chancel contains a 19th-century stone reredos with blank arcading and a cinquefoil-headed ogee-arched piscina with stone shelf. A double-chamfered chancel arch with polygonal responds leads to a similar arch serving the north chancel chapel. The nave has 3-bay arcades with octagonal piers, moulded bases and capitals, and double-chamfered arches. An ogee-headed niche in the south aisle, brought from Grendon church, is accompanied by an ogee-arched piscina. The south aisle has a restored 15th-century roof with moulded cambered ties and stop-moulded rafters. The remaining roofs are of 19th-century date but of good quality, particularly that over the nave.

A plain octagonal font stands in the church. A 17th-century hexagonal pulpit on a stem features decorative panelling to the sides and an elaborate tester with an openwork cupola and group of finials. The screen round the vestry in the south aisle is made from sections of the original readers desk and has similar panelling. A complete set of tiled floors by Minton was laid to designs by Lord Alwyne Compton. Stained-glass windows include an east window to the north chapel by Lady Marian Alford, dating before 1888, and fine late 19th-century stained-glass windows to the chancel.

Monuments and Memorials

The church contains a significant collection of monuments. A Purbeck marble effigy of a cross-legged knight lies on a tapering coffin lid, said to represent Sir David de Esseby who died before 1268. A brass commemorates William Ermyn, rector, died 1401, rendered almost life-size with small figures of saints on the orphreys. A monument to the 1st Marquis of Northampton, died 1827, was designed by E. Blore in the form of a low reredos in the north chapel with a central foiled recess framing an inscription panel flanked by blank arches with Decorated tracery. A wall monument to Margaret, wife of the 2nd Marquis, who died 1830, is signed by Pietro Tenerani di Carrara and dated 1836. It is in the Grecian style, wrought in Carrara marble with a relief of Charity, and is surmounted by a bust set against a scallop with lush acanthus decoration. A monument to Spencer, 2nd Marquis, died 1851, stands at the west end of the nave; it comprises an over life-size seated angel with the trumpet of the Last Judgement on his lap in Carrara marble, on a veined grey marble plinth set on a base of granite and black marble, with an inscription to the plinth, also by Tenerani. A tomb recess contains a monument to Lady Margaret Leveson-Gower, designed by Gillet of Leicester, framing a recumbent effigy by Marochetti with an angel in shallow relief behind, both in statuary marble.