by Desconhecido
Northamptonshire
CHURCH ARCHITECTURE ∗ SAXON ∗ NORMAN
∗ EARLY ENGLISH ∗ DECORATED ∗ PERPENDICULAR
All Saints, Earls Barton – unique 10th-century Saxon architecture.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK
George Gascoigne ∗ John Dryden ∗ Charles Montagu ∗ William Smith ∗ Sir Alfred East ∗ H.E. Bates ∗ Edmund Rubbra ∗ William Alwyn
∗ Malcolm Arnold
English Church Architecture
Northamptonshire is full of delightful honey-coloured towns and villages built from the local soft golden stone, and can boast churches showing supreme examples of every style of medieval English architecture, from 7th-century Saxon to 15th-century English Perpendicular.
Saxon
There are very few stone churches surviving from the Saxon period in England, mainly because the Saxons built very few in stone, preferring to use wood as they had done in the forests of Northern Germany from whence they came. ALL SAINTS, BRIXWORTH, north of Northampton, is the largest and oldest stone Saxon church in England, one of seven 7th-century English churches still standing, and outranked in antiquity only by St Martin’s in Canterbury and St Peter’s at Bradwell, in Essex.
If Brixworth is brute Saxon strength, then ALL SAINTS, EARLS BARTON shows us the more artistic side of Saxon architecture. The 10th-century tower, half-timbered in stone, is the most ornate piece of Saxon work in England. Decorative masonry strip-work climbs the walls of the tower from bottom to top, breaking out in hoops and lozenges at different stages, the whole pattern derivative of timber framework, and dazzling in its effect. On the top portion of the Saxon tower is a delicate arcade of five-lights, found nowhere else in English architecture.
Norman
Northampton, the county town, possesses two fine examples of Norman architecture in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and St Peter’s.
There are four round churches in England modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and Northampton’s CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE is said to be the most like the original. Built in 1100 for the first Earl of Northampton, Simon de Senlis, who had just returned from the Crusades, the church is Northampton’s oldest surviving building. The original circular nave is called the Round and consists of an arcade supported by eight massive round pillars with sturdy square bases and craved capitals – the rounded arches above the pillars were replaced by pointed ones when the church was extended eastwards in the 14th century. An ambulatory or aisle runs around the arcade, and set in the middle is the altar.
After years of neglect, the church has been sympathetically restored and is now in frequent use for services, concerts and presentations.
ST PETER’S, NORTHAMPTON, which sits redundant and isolated on a traffic island a little way out of the city centre, shows an extraordinary Norman exterior, with a short, heavily buttressed tower and extended nave, laced with a continuous row of small Norman arches, quite unlike any other church in England. The interior is almost completely Norman, wide and long with no chancel arch, but with the most beautiful carved round tower arch and incredibly detailed carvings of foliage, winged creatures and human forms on the pier capitals. Built in 1140 on the site of an 8th-century Saxon church, St Peter’s is one of the great Norman treasures of England, but was almost lost to damp and traffic pollution until, in 1998, the Churches Conservation Trust stepped in and set about preserving what is a masterpiece.
Early English
The glorious tower and broach steeple of ST MARY’S, RAUNDS, soaring 183 ft (56 m) above the Nene valley east of Northampton, is 13th-century Early English Gothic style at its finest. The square tower is rich in arches, which only accentuates the simplicity of the octagonal spire above. The body of the church shows all styles of Gothic with pointed arches in the arcades and windows. St Mary’s is also noted for its 15th-century wall paintings portraying the Seven Deadly Sins, the Three Living and Three Dead Kings and St Christopher.
While accepted wisdom tells us that the pointed arch was imported from the Continent, it seems equally likely that English church builders got the idea from observing the intersection of round arches, as seen on the decorative blind arcading found in many Norman churches.
Decorated
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the slender, 15th-century spire of ST PETER AND ST PAUL, KING’S SUTTON as ‘one of the finest, if not the finest spire, in a county of spires’. The tower on which it rests shows a gallery of flamboyant (Decorated) carving, which becomes more exuberant towards the top and particularly around the base of the spire. Lying in the far south of the county, the soaring spire of King’s Sutton, 198 ft (60 m) high, is often the first glimpse the traveller has of Northamptonshire, a fitting welcome.
Perpendicular
Perpendicular is a uniquely English style, the crowning achievement of medieval English church architecture, and seen nowhere else in Europe. A supreme example is ST PETER’S, LOWICK, which can be found towering over its tiny, one-street village hidden away in a valley east of Kettering. A feast of pale golden pinnacles and weather vanes and battlements, the exquisite 15th-century octagon tower of St Peter’s is a masterpiece of grace and balance, while huge, delicately traced windows allow sunshine to flood into the interior, creating an impression of movement and space that is breathtaking.
St Peter’s was begun by a wealthy friend of Richard II, Henry Greene, of nearby Drayton House, and added to over the years by the Greene family, which explains how such a small village as Lowick comes to possess such a magnificent church.
By the end of the 15th century English church architecture had reached its height, and had met all the challenges thrown up by the desire to create churches as works of art. Money and effort and imagination began to be directed into domestic architecture, and although there were periods of prolific church building after this, such as during the late Stuart era with Sir Christopher Wren in London, and again under the Victorians, subsequent designs were usually revivals of these medieval styles.
Well, I never knew this
about
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK
George Gascoigne
1525–77
BARNACK, from where the stone came that built Peterborough and Ely cathedrals, has over the years found itself in Huntingdonshire and in Cambridgeshire, owing to boundary changes. It was originally, however, a Northamptonshire village, certainly so in the days when GEORGE GASCOIGNE, one of the founders of English literature, was laid to rest in the church of St John the Baptist, with its high Saxon chancel arch, Saxon tower and one of the earliest English spires. George Gascoigne was a kinsman of Martin Frobisher, something of a man about town and a favourite of Elizabeth I. A lawyer working out of Gray’s Inn, he was also a prodigious writer who explored many innovative forms of writing, and a play he wrote for his colleagues at the Inn called The Supposes was THE FIRST PROSE DRAMA EVER PRODUCED IN ENGLISH. He is also credited with writing the first masque and the first essay on poetry in English. The Spoyle of Antwerp, his vivid eye-witness account of the sacking of Antwerp by the Spaniards, the brutality of which inspired Rubens’ masterpiece The Massacre of the Innocents, earned Gascoigne the title of THE FIRST ENGLISH WAR CORRESPONDENT. He is buried in the family vaults of his best friend George Whetstone, who owned the nearby Walcot Manor where Gascoigne was staying when he died.
Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
1661–1715
CHARLES MONTAGU was born in HORTON, just south of Northampton. He entered Parliament in 1691, where he was an early campaigner for ‘legal aid’, particularly for those accused of high treason. He was eventually appointed to the Treasury, where he oversaw the introduction of proper silver coins. Until then coins were cut crudely straight from the metal, and could easily be ‘clipped’, so that the face value of the coin did not necessarily match the true value of the silver in it. To pay for the new coinage Montagu introduced the infamous WINDOW TAX, whereby each household was taxed according to the number of windows their house possesse
d. As a result, many people bricked up a number of their windows, to reduce their liability. As Lord of the Treasury he proposed the idea of the National Debt, and in 1694 he introduced the bill establishing the Bank of England.
John Dryden
1631–1700
Poet Laureate JOHN DRYDEN, regarded as the best English poet of the late 17th century, after the death of Milton, was born in ALDWINCLE, south of Oundle. He often stayed with his uncle who lived at Canons Ashby, a delightful small manor house near Northampton, constructed from a 12th-century Augustinian priory by the Drydens. Although the property now belongs to the National Trust, the Dryden family still have an apartment in the house.
William Smith
1769–1839
Not only is St Peter’s Church in Northampton an important national monument, by virtue of its unsurpassed Norman architecture, but it is also the burial place of the ‘FATHER OF ENGLISH GEOLOGY’, WILLIAM SMITH. By profession a surveyor, Smith began studying and recording the various rock strata he came across while surveying and excavating a canal being constructed near Bath by the engineer John Rennie.
John Dryden
Only man clogs his happiness with care,
Destroying what is
with thoughts of what may be . . .
Happy the man . . . who can call today his own
He who . . . can say . . .
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today
None but the brave deserves the fair
Quotes from the work of John Dryden
In 1799 he wrote down his observations, and the resulting document, the ‘Table of the Strata near Bath’, resulted in the establishment of geology as a science. At the same time he began colouring in the geological features on a map of Bath and the surrounding area, thus creating THE OLDEST GEOLOGICAL MAP IN EXISTENCE. In 1801 he did the same with a small map of England, and from this created the first ever geological map of England, which was published in 1815, and laid the foundations for geological surveys and discoveries across the world.
He died in Northampton while staying at Northampton’s Hazelrigg Mansion, en route to a conference in Birmingham.
Born in Northamptonshire
SIR ALFRED EAST (1849–1913), landscape artist, was born in KETTERING. Now regarded as one of the finest of the Victorian landscape painters, he was also one of the first English artists to paint the landscape of Japan.
HERBERT ERNEST (H.E.) BATES (1905–1974), described by Graham Greene as ‘Britain’s successor to Chekov’, and author of the English classic The Darling Buds of May, was born in RUSHDEN, home of John White Shoes. His early works evoke the atmosphere of the Northamptonshire shoe towns and countryside in which he grew up.
Three 20th-century composers were born in Northampton:
EDMUND RUBBRA (1901–86), best remembered for his 11 symphonies.
WILLIAM ALWYN (1905–86), composer of five symphonies and scores for over 200 films, including The History of Mr Polly and The Fallen Idol.
MALCOLM ARNOLD (1921–2006), composer of nine symphonies, two operas, a musical and scores for 132 films, including Whistle Down the Wind and Bridge on the River Kwai, for which, in 1957, he became THE FIRST ENGLISH COMPOSER TO WIN AN OSCAR.
Northumberland
NORTHERN SAINT ∗ HOLY ISLAND
∗ THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE 20TH CENTURY
∗ NORTHUMBERLAND GREYS ∗ TEA
Lindifarne Priory, a cradle of English Christianity.
NORTHUMBERLAND FOLK
Admiral Lord Collingwood ∗ Emily Wilding Davison ∗ Mary Astell ∗ Sir George Airey ∗ Jackie Milburn ∗ Jack and Bobby Charlton
St Cuthbert
635–87
Lying off the coast of Northumberland is LINDISFARNE, or Holy Island, one of England’s most sacred places and spiritual home of Northern England’s patron saint, ST CUTHBERT.
Born in 635, Cuthbert became a shepherd boy in the Northumbrian hills and at the age of 16, while tending his sheep, he had a vision of stars falling from the sky, which he interpreted as angels descending from Heaven to carry away the soul of St Aidan, first Bishop of Lindisfarne, who that night had died.
Cuthbert joined the monks of Melrose Abbey and in 664, when the Synod of Whitby settled in favour of Roman Christianity, he was sent to Lindisfarne to help the monks there with the transition from the Celtic traditions. Here he gained a reputation for healing and miracles, and brought great fame to Lindisfarne as a place of sanctuary and retreat.
Craving solitude himself, Cuthbert retired to a rocky islet off Lindisfarne, now called St Cuthbert’s Isle, where he built himself a tiny chapel and fashioned rosaries out of ‘St Cuthbert’s Beads’, tiny fossils found on the shore.
Cuthbert eventually became Bishop of Lindisfarne, where he remained until, feeling his days were coming to a close, he took himself off to lonely Farne Island, where he died in March 687.
Cuthbert was buried on Lindisfarne, where his grave became a place of pilgrimage. Not long after his death the monks there produced a glorious manuscript, illustrated by the new Bishop, Eadfrith, which became known as the Lindisfarne Gospels.
In 793 Lindisfarne suffered the first Viking raid on the coast of England. The monastery was looted and burned, but St Cuthbert’s shrine was fortunately overlooked.
Nearly 100 years later, in 875, Lindisfarne was again threatened by Danish invaders, and this time the monks fled the island along with Cuthbert’s coffin, in which they had placed the head of St Oswald, Christian King of Northumbria, and the Gospels. For the next seven years they wandered through the north of England, seeking somewhere safe to rest their precious burden.
On one occasion, when they were crossing the Irish Sea, the Gospels were washed overboard and the monks despaired, until St Cuthbert appeared to them in a vision and guided them to a spot on the Scottish coast near Whithorn, where they found the manuscript washed ashore and undamaged, except for some minor staining from the sea. The Gospels are now in the British Museum, where they were analysed and found to be indeed marked with seawater stains.
St Cuthbert’s coffin eventually came to rest at Durham, where his shrine is today. Before being placed in his new tomb in Durham Cathedral in 1104, Cuthbert’s remains were examined and his body found to be perfectly preserved, as was the head of St Oswald, which was hence adopted as St Cuthbert’s symbol.
Lindisfarne remains a beautiful, haunting and sacred place, isolated and cut off by the high tide, windswept and crowned at the southern end by a castle built on top of a conical mound 100 ft (30 m) high. The castle was transformed into a private home by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1903, and is now owned by the National Trust.
Sir Charles Parsons
1854–1931
The Man who Invented the 20th Century
Kirkwhelpington is a sturdy stone village on the edge of the Northumberland Moors west of Morpeth. Standing on a hillock above the Wansbeck is a long, narrow 13th-century church, and in the churchyard is the stone burial plot of the Englishman who gave power to the world, SIR CHARLES PARSONS.
The third son of the Earl of Rosse, he came from a remarkable family of pioneers and inventors already renowned in the worlds of science, astronomy, photography and engineering, and it was therefore not considered too unusual when, after studying mathematics at Cambridge, he took up an apprenticeship at the Newcastle engineering works of William Armstrong. During this time he applied himself to designing a steam turbine engine.
The steam turbine, which converts the kinetic energy of steam directly into rotation, is many times more efficient than the up and down movement of a steam piston engine. Parsons’ prototype was capable of 18,000 rpm compared with the maximum 500 rpm of the average piston engine, and is considered to be the single most important invention in the history of the generation of electricity.
In 1888 Parsons installed his turbine engines in the Forth Banks power station in Newcastle, the first public power station to use turbine generators anywhere in the world. By the time
of his death in 1931 all the major power stations in the world had adopted Parsons’ steam turbine generators.
Parsons also designed steam turbines to propel ships. He established the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company at Wallsend and in 1895 launched Turbinia, THE WORLD’S FIRST STEAM TURBINE DRIVEN BOAT. In order to demonstrate its phenomenal speed Parsons took Turbinia to the Spithead Review celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and there, in front of leaders from all the world’s great naval powers, he proceeded to race around the biggest fleet of warships ever assembled, at over 30 knots. The Royal Navy patrol ships sent to challenge Turbinia were unable to catch her, and Turbinia proved herself to be the fastest ship in the world. Within ten years all warships were equipped with steam turbines. In 1906 THE WORLD’S FIRST TURBINE-POWERED BATTLESHIP, HMS Dreadnought, was launched at Portsmouth.
The year before, the Allen Line ships Victorian and Virginian had become THE FIRST TURBINE-DRIVEN PASSENGER LINERS TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC, and in 1907 the Cunard liners Mauretania and Lusitania began regular Atlantic service. Lusitania gained the coveted Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing a month after her maiden voyage, while Mauretania, built at the Swan Hunter yard on Tyneside, held the Blue Riband for longer than any other liner, over 20 years. Modified Parsons turbine engines powered the liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary as well as the battleships HMS George V and HMS Hood.
The Order of Merit was founded by Edward VII in 1902 to recognise exceptional service to the Crown or the advancement of arts, learning, law and literature, and is the only Order specifically awarded to artists, scientists and intellectuals. It is also one of the few Orders awarded free from political recommendation, along with the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the Royal Victorian Order.