St. Margaret of Antioch - Crick, Northamptonshire - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

"Architecturally, Crick Church is rare old hotch-potch. There was an Anglo-Saxon church here by AD700, of which nothing remains and which was probably made of wood. A Norman church followed in 1077 built by Geoffrey de la Guerche. Sometime between 1160-70 some additions were thought to have been made, and the Norman font here dates from that period - and nothing else.

Between 1200-1220 Alaric Thomas de Astley added the south aisle, two bays of which still have Early English columns and stiff-leaf capitals. He also added the tower with an early form of broach spire. He might also have built a north aisle. This north aisle was rebuilt in 1250-80, and the height of the south aisle was raised.

Skipping over further mediaeval tinkering, there were further major works between 1320 and 1400. The chancel - a real barn of a chancel! - was rebuilt by Sir Thomas de Astley. Later the nave was raised and a clerestory added. And so it goes on. What we have left is a predominantly Decorated period church. The Perpendicular period left Crick pretty well untouched before the Victorians stepped in with their usual program of restoration and “modernisation”.

Crick’s Norman font is pretty well unique. Its bowl is decorated with three rows of circular motifs. At the rim it has a zig zag moulding executed with a certain amount of geometric skill that is lacking on many Norman fonts. It is supported on three monster figures. their backs bent with the strain. The motif of evil monsters bent to the service of God is a very popular device in Italy. Crick is not one of the spectacular Norman fonts but in many ways it embodies the joy of Norman fonts: essentially most are what we would today call in e-bay speak “One of a Kind”. There are some distinctive styles, such as those produced by the Herefordshire School and there are some distinctive themes such as Christ and the Apostles, but most seem to have come straight from the imaginations of the individual carvers. And here many of them sit 1000 years later admired and cherished, having been at the centre of village life for generation after generation. That is what you call “leaving your mark on the world”!

The font is not all that sets Crick apart, however. When the chancel was rebuilt during the Decorated period it was embellished internally with some very exuberant carvings at the ends of the window arches - window “stops” to be more technical . The nave roof corbels have further carvings. There is nothing restrained about these carvings: they are large and brash with a strong sense of mischief!

With its whitewashed walls, clerestory and large aisle windows, Crick church is almost startlingly light - even on a grey day.

Some of the superb chancel carvings, one of which is a spectacular Green Man. Lions are juxtaposed with the arms of the Beauchamp (pron, “Beecham”) and the Astley families. This refers to the links between the families established by the marriage in 1325 of Sir Thomas de Astley, who was responsible for many of the c14 alterations to this church, to Elizabeth Beauchamp daughter of the Earl of Warwick. 100 years later the Earldom was held by Richard Neville, famous as the “Kingmaker” in the Wars of the Roses (one might more accurately describe him as the “Perpetual Turncoat” perhaps....!). The monkey or ape was believed to embody the desires and lusts of a man without the self-restraint. The dragons are particularly ferocious!"

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Building Materials: Stone

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