ALL SAINTS. A good Dec church. The most telling exception is the N aisle. The arcade is hard to understand. It was first a matter of three bays added to a Norman nave. The Norman piers are round, the abaci square but chamfered, the arches pointed with just a slight chamfer. That makes the work c.1190. The W bay was later cut into by the tower, but the W respond was found in c. 1190. Then, in the late C13, the arcade was extended E with circular piers whose abaci are alternatingly octagonal and round, double-chamfered arches, and a little nailhead enrichment. The W wall of the chancel (whose arch is Dec) cuts into this lengthening, so that the easternmost of the late C13 piers now acts as a respond for the one-bay N chapel, which is also Dec. But extemally the N doorway seems early C13, and the N aisle W lancet and the NW window of two separate lancets with a tiny blank quatrefoil over belong to the late C13 build. However, externally it is the W tower that dominates. It is Dec and has two-light bell openings with transom and a recessed broach spire with low broaches and two tiers of lucarnes. The nave S windows are Dec but Victorian. The chancel and N vestry appear Perp, but the eaves-frieze includes all ballflowering so that is Dec too, and Dec is indeed the ANGLE PISCINA in the chancel. Late Perp the clerestory, Late Perp a head-corbel and the brackets l. and r. of the chancel E window, and Late Perp the N aisle roof with angels against the intermediate principals. - (FONT. In the churchyard the bowl of a Perp font with quatrefoils. GMCH) - SCREEN. Perp, of three-light divisions and without doubt the best in the county. It still has its ribbed coving with three patterns of ribbing and much original colour. On the dado painted Saints no longer clearly recognizable. - STALLS. Two have old poppyheads. - SCULPTURE. In the S porch a Cross of the C1I2, probably not from Tilbrook. On one narrow side a bishop standing on a colonnette rendered in relief. On one broad side fluting but with two big flowers. - Above the S porch entrance a man with a pig; C12? - STAINED GLASS. Fragments in a chancel S window. - In the E window two early C16 roundels. - BRASSES. Under the organ brasses of a Civilian and wife, c.1400. The sizes of the figures seem unrecorded.
TILBROOK. It has a manor house to put into a picture, with a soft red glow on its barns and timbers, all 16th or 17th centuries. There is a windmill on a hill, a fragment of the ancient cross, and in the 14th century church is the oldest brass in the county.
A splendid ash stands sentinel by the gate of the church, with its majestic tower and a stone spire from which gargoyles have been looking down 600 years. One is a man who seems to be crawling round the corner of the wall; another is like a man gripping a flowing beard. The south porch was built at the same time as the tower.
The oldest part of the church is the nave arcade, 12th century at the west end and 13th in the last two bays. The clerestory and the chancel arch are Tudor, but there are two piscinas which were here before the Tudors came, one with a column capped by a queer head. They were probably made by the masons who put the man driving a beast over the porch, and the St Christopher in one of the aisles. There is another Christopher in a fragment of glass 500 years old. The ancient brass has been here since 1400 and has on it the oldest engraved portraits of a man and his wife in Huntingdonshire. Both are dressed in long gowns, and each has a dog. We do not know their names.
The pride of the church is in its lovely carved oak. It is in the roof, by the altar, and in the chancel screen. Few churches have a better collection of screens. One it has sent to South Kensington, with its six traceried bays and its gate into the chancel, and unusually beautiful and ingenious work in the vaulting. Its arches have delicate tracery and impressive fan-vaulting gilded and painted, the lower panels with old paintings of saints, one of which is St Helen with a cross. The screen in one of the chapels has a 17th century door and 15th century fragments, the other is 16th century and has foliage in the spandrels. In one of the chapels are angels carved in oak before Columbus had dreamed of America, some with musical instruments, some with books and crowns. There is an old chair with a figure of a man carved on the back, a group of 15th century stalls, and a Jacobean altar table. The priest’s door hangs on ironwork which has supported it for 600 years.
Here they laid to rest an old man of 97, Barton Young, who was shepherd of this flock for half a century.
A splendid ash stands sentinel by the gate of the church, with its majestic tower and a stone spire from which gargoyles have been looking down 600 years. One is a man who seems to be crawling round the corner of the wall; another is like a man gripping a flowing beard. The south porch was built at the same time as the tower.
The oldest part of the church is the nave arcade, 12th century at the west end and 13th in the last two bays. The clerestory and the chancel arch are Tudor, but there are two piscinas which were here before the Tudors came, one with a column capped by a queer head. They were probably made by the masons who put the man driving a beast over the porch, and the St Christopher in one of the aisles. There is another Christopher in a fragment of glass 500 years old. The ancient brass has been here since 1400 and has on it the oldest engraved portraits of a man and his wife in Huntingdonshire. Both are dressed in long gowns, and each has a dog. We do not know their names.
The pride of the church is in its lovely carved oak. It is in the roof, by the altar, and in the chancel screen. Few churches have a better collection of screens. One it has sent to South Kensington, with its six traceried bays and its gate into the chancel, and unusually beautiful and ingenious work in the vaulting. Its arches have delicate tracery and impressive fan-vaulting gilded and painted, the lower panels with old paintings of saints, one of which is St Helen with a cross. The screen in one of the chapels has a 17th century door and 15th century fragments, the other is 16th century and has foliage in the spandrels. In one of the chapels are angels carved in oak before Columbus had dreamed of America, some with musical instruments, some with books and crowns. There is an old chair with a figure of a man carved on the back, a group of 15th century stalls, and a Jacobean altar table. The priest’s door hangs on ironwork which has supported it for 600 years.
Here they laid to rest an old man of 97, Barton Young, who was shepherd of this flock for half a century.
Seems a shame it's locked.
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