All Saints' Church, Earls Barton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids All Saints' Church |
|
|---|---|
Tower of All Saints' parish church
|
|
| 52°15′57″N 0°45′12″W / 52.26583°N 0.75333°W | |
| Location | Earls Barton, Northamptonshire |
| Country | England, UK |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Churchmanship | Central |
| History | |
| Status | Parish Church |
| Dedication | All Saints |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Style | Anglo-Saxon |
| Years built | Late 10th Century |
| Specifications | |
| Height | 69 feet (21 metres) |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Parish of Earls Barton |
| Archdeaconry | Archdeaconry of Northampton |
| Diocese | Diocese of Peterborough |
All Saints' Church in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, is a very old and special church. It is a Church of England parish church built in the Anglo-Saxon style. Experts believe it was built in the late 900s. This was shortly after the Danish raids on England.
Contents
The Amazing Tower
The tower at All Saints' Church is its most famous part. It is 69 feet (21 metres) tall from its base to the top.
The tower was probably first used as a "tower nave." This means the ground floor of the tower was the main part of the church. A smaller room, called a chancel, was attached to it on the east side. This was similar to St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, which was built around the same time.
There was a door on the south side of the tower. Another opening was on the west side. These allowed people to enter the church. The upper floors might have been homes for the priest. They could also have been safe places for valuable church items. However, some people think these towers would have been dangerous during Viking raids. Their wooden floors and many doors could have made them fire traps. The very top floor of the tower holds the church bells.
How the Tower is Decorated
The tower is made of stone rubble. It has a smooth finish on the outside. It is decorated with tall, thin pilaster strips made of limestone. These strips create patterns like "strapwork." At the corners of the tower, the walls are made stronger. They use long vertical stones called quoins placed on flat, horizontal stones. This style is called long and short work.
The way this tower is decorated is unique to Anglo-Saxon architecture. Towers with this kind of decoration are found in this local area. Examples include Barnack and Stowe Nine Churches in Northamptonshire.
Different levels of the tower are separated by stone bands called string courses. Each level gets a bit thinner as it goes up. This creates a step at each string course. The vertical pilaster strips continue up the tower. They have stone arches at lower levels and triangular designs higher up. Sometimes, these designs create a criss-cross pattern.
In the 1100s, the small Anglo-Saxon chancel was removed. A larger nave (the main part of the church) was built. This meant the tower now stood at the west end of the church. The nave was made bigger later in the 1100s. It was then updated in the 1200s and early 1300s. The east end of the chancel was built in the 1200s.
Special Building Features
The church's design shows a lot of Roman influence. You can see this in the doors and windows of the tower.
Roman Style in England
At the west doorway, the pilaster strips go up the sides and form an arch over the top. Inside this, there is another arched shape. This shape starts from square blocks called imposts. These blocks are decorated with vertical grooves. The sides of the doorway, called jambs, are made of large flat stones. They are set at right angles to the wall. This style of jambs comes from Roman buildings. You can see a similar design at the Bath House of Chesters Fort on Hadrian's Wall.
Some windows on the lower south side have a central post, called a mullioned window. They have small, rounded pillars called baluster shafts. The tops of these windows are arched. The window openings themselves are shaped like crosses. Higher up, the belfry has five-light windows with arches. These also have baluster shaft mullions.
The decorative arches and triangles on the tower are just for show. They don't actually hold anything up. Warwick Rodwell even said that the "hopeless jumble" of these decorations at Earls Barton shows they were just ornaments. He thinks the design might have been based on wooden frames. But then the stone pieces were put together incorrectly. The openings in the tower fit neatly within these decorative triangles and strips.
Stone for Building
Using stone allowed strong towers to be built during this time. The availability of stone that was easy to quarry and carve helped create towers like the one at Earls Barton. For example, limestone from Barnack was widely used. It was quarried from Anglo-Saxon times through the Middle Ages. This stone was used to build churches and cathedrals, including those in Peterborough and Ely.
It is clear that Anglo-Saxon churches with "long and short work" and pilaster strips are found across England. They are in areas where this type of limestone was available. They are also in East Anglia, where the stone was transported.
In 1935, an artist named Henry Bird painted the 15th-century rood screen. This is a decorated screen that separates the nave from the chancel. The upper parts of his painting show different types of butterflies found in the local area.
A Bit of History
Next to All Saints' Church in Earls Barton, there is a mound and a ditch. Nikolaus Pevsner, a famous historian, thought that the local lord might have wanted to tear down the church.
After the Norman Conquest of England, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman named Waltheof became the first Earl of Northampton. He married Judith, who was the niece of William I. She was given land at a place called Buarton, which later became Earls Barton. The mound next to the church might have been part of a manor house. It is likely that All Saints' Church was originally connected to a manor, not a monastery.
Similar earthworks are also found next to the church at Sulgrave in Northamptonshire. There, the remains of an Anglo-Saxon hall have been found. This shows that churches linked to manors were common when All Saints' was built.
-
St Andrew and St Stephen on the rood screen painted by Henry Bird
-
Old door of All Saints
-
Anglo-Saxon stone carving at All Saints
