Bell Tower - St John the Baptist - Harringworth, Northamptonshire - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

Bell tower of St John the Baptist church, Harringworth, with a ring of 6 bells.

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

"The Parish Church of St. John the Baptist stands on the N. side of the village behind the main street. It consists of a Chancel, Nave, North and South Aisles, West Tower with spire and South Porch. The walls are mostly in coursed limestone rubble and larger squared stones, but the S. aisle is built in high quality ashlar some of which is banded with ironstone. The roofs are low-pitched. The tower, of early 13th-century character, may have been begun in the later 12th century to judge from the form of the tower-arch capitals. At the end of the 13th century the present chancel arch was constructed and in the 14th century the nave, aisles and S. porch were rebuilt. The chancel dates from the late 15th century and is of the same width as its predecessor, presumably of the 13th century, as shown by the steeply pitched roof weathering which survives on the E. face of the nave wall. During the 17th century the piers of the N. arcade were replaced; the moulding of the new capitals may be compared with those of 1621 in Apethorpe church. Also in the 17th-century the N. clearstorey was rebuilt. In 1681–3 the spire was much repaired, and possibly rebuilt; the work is recorded in the church survey book of this date: '. . . to amend steeple being much in decay' (NRO, X622 (7)). This survey also refers to repairs to buttresses on the N. side of the church. In the early 18th century a large burial vault was added in the N. aisle by the Tryon family. A restoration in 1891 was mostly concerned with reroofing.

The size of the early 13th-century tower indicates that the church was a large one at this date.

The West Tower of the early 13th century has a tower arch of three chamfered and square orders; these are repeated on jambs below coved capitals enriched with flat leaf forms on the N. and water leaf on the S. Above and to the N. of the arch is a small rectangular window. Externally the tower is in three stages separated by weathered string-courses with clasping buttresses, that on the S.W. being larger to take a vice. There is a lancet window on the ground stage on the W. and another on the second stage on the S. In the third stage are belfry openings each consisting of two lights with a central shaft and capital, set within a pointed arch having nook shafts with leaf-moulded capitals. The amount of rebuilding that took place in the 17th century is uncertain, but the character of the cyma-type moulding at the head of the wall suggests that more of the spire was reconstructed than is implied by the change in masonry at the level of the lower lucarnes. The octagonal spire has broaches above which are large corbel heads of post-medieval character. There are three tiers of lucarnes, the lower two of two lights, the upper of one light. The top of the spire, rebuilt in recent years, carries a weather cock.

[There are] two fragments carved with chevron ornament, built into the tower, purpose unknown, perhaps pre-Conquest."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

Address of Tower: St. John the Baptist Seaton Road Harringworth , Northamptonshire England NN17 3AF Number of bells in tower?: 6 Relevant website?: [Web Link] Still Operational: Not Listed Rate tower: Not listed Tours or visits allowed in tower?: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please post an original picture of the tower taken while you were there. Please also record how you came to be at this tower and any other interesting information you learned about it while there.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.