VOEWg aw® ®ETAO[L§ OF BY J. M DERICK, Esa ARCHITECT. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER FOR THE ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY STANTON HARCOURT CHURCH O.YfOTilSlRVCv This interesting Church is cruciform in plan ; the Tower is massive, but of fine proportions ; it springs from the intersections of the arms of the Cross, supported by four elegant but simple Early English Arches opening into the Nave, Transepts, and Chancel. (See Transverse and Longitudinal Sections, Plates 2 & 3.) The Nave is Norman ; the walls are built of rough concrete rock ; its principal Archi¬ tectural features are two simple doorways, North and South, the Arches of which are semicircles but slightly enriched; these spring from attached shafts having plain Norman Capitals of bold character. (See Plate 11.) The Nave still retains four simple single light Norman windows, enriched with a bold round moulding continuous round the head and jambs but without labels. The roof is apparently of the fourteenth century, and is a good specimen of the carpentry of that period. The struts of the trusses and the principal rafters, are enriched in the manner called engrailed, in Heraldry. The tie-beam and king-post have good mouldings, which are of Decorated character. (See Plate 9.) The Transepts and Chancel are of the thirteenth century; the former have been much altered (not for the better) late in the fifteenth century, the triple light windows of the North and South ends have been destroyed, and two of perpendicular character substituted; the North Transept lias suffered least. There were two Altars here on the Eastern side ; the brackets which supported the lights are still in good preservation ; the simple lancet windows, which mark the situation of the Altars, are inserted in a sort of screen of two arches ; the edges of the arches are beautifully moulded, and spring from single columns at the sides, meeting on a triple shaft common to each, having a fine foliated capital. (See Plates 7 & 8.) The whole stands in advance of the windows, but attached to the wall. The Altar platforms still exist and are of their original height; the Piscina of the North Transept is perfect, with the exception of the basin which received the waste, and corresponds in form with the doorway to the stair turret adjoining. (See Transverse Section, Plate 3.) The roof is plain open timber of the fifteenth century; the South Transept corresponded with the North in size, design, and arrangement, but has been much altered to suit its union with the Harcourt Chapel, a building of good perpendicular character though late. The Chancel is one of the most pure specimens of Early English (as far as it goes) of any in this County; for freedom of character in its mouldings, and simplicity of detail, it is not surpassed by any specimen of the Style in England; it is of large dimensions for so small a Church, contrasting broadly with the stunted Chancels of our modern Churches. (See Plate 4.) The Eastern window is of three lights; the jambs are splayed in a very bold manner, which gives the effect of their being built in a fnuch thicker wall; the jambs have attached shafts; those of the intermediate piers are triple, with fine foliated capitals; the shafts of the side lights have moulded capitals beautifully profiled—(see sheet of details Plate 11); the shafts are united to a bold hollow moulding which stops the Abaci, and at the same time serves to maintain the vertical tendency of line with the label above, (so essential to every principle of Gothic.) It is to be lamented that this beautiful Chancel is disfigured by a piece of bastard Italian carpentry, called an Altar-Screen, and by some specimens of Churchwarden paintings on the walls in their usual style of art. Across the entrance to the Chancel is a wooden Screen of remarkably elegant Early English character, evidently of the same age as the building, and believed to be the earliest example that has vet been noticed in England. (See the Elevation and Details, Plate 6.) On the north side of the Chancel near the Altar, is a very singular structure which has long been a puzzle to Antiquaries, but which may be conjectured, from its situation and from the usual emblems of the Crucifixion found upon it, to have been used as the Easter Sepulchre, although different in form and character from any other that has been hitherto noticed. Others suppose it to have been only a canopied monument, of unusually small dimensions; whatever its use may have been, it is a very beautiful piece of work of the fourteenth century, and as such, a drawing of it is here given (Plate 5), without presuming to decide the question. The artist has for convenience called it the Sepulchre, but this must not be considered as pledging the Society to that opinion. The arms of the following families occur on the shields in the cornice: Bohun, Earl of Hereford; Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk ; Estoteville, Blount, Lovell; Clare, Earl of Gloucester; together with the arms of England, and some others too much defaced to be made out. LIST OF P LATE S. Plate i. Plate 2. Plate 3. Plate 4. Plate 5. Plate 6. Plate 7. Plate 8. Plate 9. Plate 10. Plate 11. Plate 12. Ground Plan. Longitudinal Section through the Tower, Nave, and Chancel. Transverse Section through the Tower and Transept. View in the Chancel, looking Eastward. The Easter Sepulchre or Monument. Elevation and Details of the Rood Screen. The Screen ; Capital; Zone, Base, Label, and Edge of Arch, one-quarter the actual size ; Iron Bolt or Lock. Windows in the North Transept. Details from the North Transept. Capital and Base of the attached Columns of the Arch under the Tower, Profile and Plan of the Base of the triple Shaft of the East Window ; one-quarter the actual size. View and Details of the Roof of the Nave. Section of the King-Post; Section of the Tie-Beam ; Capital from the Chancel; Piscina in the Harcourt Chapel. View in Nave, shewing a Recess and Stone Seat of the thirteenth century, with a Window of the fifteenth inserted. Details from Various Parts of the Church. From the Chancel.—Stringcourse and Hood-Moulding of the Windows; Section of the Arch of the East Window; Section of the Arch of the Side Windows ; Capital, Base, and Plan of the Shafts, and Ed°-e of the Arch of the Side Windows; Edge of Credence Shelf; and Mouldings to the Shafts of the Piscina. All these are very good specimens of Early English work. From the Holy Sepulchre.—Sections of the Cornice, Arch, and Rib of the Groining; Capital and Base of the Clustered Shafts; Base of the Buttresses. These are good specimens of Decorated work. From the Exterior of the Church.—Norman Capital to the Shaft and Section of the Arch of the Door on the South Side of the Nave ; Section of the Arch of a Norman Window on the South Side of the Nave; Label to a Perpendicular Window on the North Side of the Nave, (the interior of which is shewn in Plate 10.); Stoup in the Nave; Early English Stringcourses on the North and South Transepts, above and below the Windows; Section of the Arch of the Early English Door in the South Transept. South-West View, with Pope’s Tower and the Ancient Kitchen. PLATE 2 . r CHURCH. :t I 0 N SeaPc P feet Inc* CHURCH. ION Settle <9 Fee f f'V' rf! / // < /• the Actual STANT O TST HAR COURT PLATE 1L Arch lows . 1/iouldmg- to Shafts of Piscina- Vmdows ,-Base 3 - b of the Gr oir inmg Capitals of • Clustered Shafts m Clustered Shafts Windo ws rLATE 12. pope’s tower