Description

LITTLE HOUGHTON BEDFORD ROAD
SP8059 (North side)
11/125 Church of St. Mary the Virgin
03/05/68

GV II*

Church. C13-C15, altered late C18/early C19. Body of church rebuilt 1873 and
otherwise restored by Charles Buckeridge at cost of £3,000. Coursed ironstone
rubble and coursed squared ironstone with ironstone and limestone dressings,
plain-tile and lead roofs. Chancel, organ chamber/vestry, aisled nave, south
porch and west tower. 3-bay chancel has 3-light east window with C19 reticulated
tracery, a 2-light window to north with C19 Decorated tracery and pair of
similar windows to south all with hood moulds; diagonal off-set buttresses and
stone-coped east gable with kneelers. C19 vestry/organ chamber continues north
aisle and has 3-light window to east and north, the latter with straight head,
both with hood moulds. Nave has 3-bay clerestory of 1873; 2-light windows with
straight heads and hood moulds and plain stone-coped parapet. Aisles have
2-light windows with C19 Decorated style tracery, except for 3-light east window
to south aisle with C19 intersecting tracery, all with hood moulds, and plain
stone-coped parapets. South aisle overlaps chancel. South door of c.1200 has one
order of shafts with leaf-crocket capitals, moulded imposts and round arch with
two flat steps; stone to arch of alternating limestone and ironstone. South
porch has doorway with 2 orders of polygonal shafts, moulded capitals and
triple-chamfered arch. Tower has 3 stages. Pair of C19 cusped 1-light windows to
west with hood moulds and chamfered lancet window to next stage north side. C13
former bell-chamber stage has 5 blank arches to each side with round shafts and
blocked chamfered lancet windows flanking central blank arch. C15 top stage has
2-light bell-chamber openings with Decorated tracery and hood moulds. Off-set
angle buttresses and quatrefoil frieze of limestone to base of battlemented
parapet. Interior: chancel has 2-seat sedilia grouped with piscina with
ogee-arched heads to arches and trefoils to spandrels. Double-chamfered arches
to former north and south chancel chapels with polygonal responds. Similar
chancel arch. Nave has 3-bay arcades probably both of 1873, with octagonal
piers, polygonal responds and double-chamfered arches. Triple-chamfered tower
arch. Font has circular bowl with flat attached shafts carrying rough
single-scallop capitals, supported by four octagonal colonnettes round central
bar stop-chamfered support. C18 charity board. 3 stalls in chancel, possibly
continental with winged lion arms and lion's feet. C19 reredos with terracotta
panels. C19 stain-glass windows to chancel; east window by Clayton & Bell,
c.1873. Monuments: wall monument of coloured marbles to William Ward, d.1737,
his wife Bridget, d.1735 and their 7 children erected 1775 by their two
surviving daughters Mary and Dorothy by William Cox of Northampton with apron,
obelisk background, cartouche of arms and lamp finials.
(Buildings of England: Northamptonshire: 1973, pp293-5; VCH: Northamptonshire:
Vol IV, 1937, pp269-270; Little Houghton Coronation Scrapbook, 1953)

Listing NGR: SP8034059629

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545230

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)