A Norman church largely rebuilt in the fourteenth century. Still with a good Norman font with intertwined monsters, fish and seemingly incongruously a cross. A medallion containing the head of a military man, which is likely to have originally adorned Braybrooke castle which belonged to the Griffin family has washed up inside the church. Note his luxuriant moustache and goatee. Also a wall painting with that most sympathetic of saints, St Anthony with his pig, patron saint of lost causes. Monument This is the only church I failed to get into during my recce but I am encouraged by Pevsner’s description “Splendid Elizabethans monument to a member of the Griffin family circa 1565-70. Base with shot pilasters with roundels and a cartouche with scrolls. Main tier with four bulgy Ionic Balusters, the outer ones trebled and set in front of the others. Their bases are shorter balusters, and they carry another set of short balusters (clearly for anyone interested in balusters this is a must). Centre panel with shield in a gadrooned frame. Top with urns and a semicircular centre piece containing a shell and crowned by and urn. No figures at all.” The Griffin family lived at nearby Dingley Hall. Edward Griffin, who is probably the principle figure remembered here, was an ardent recusant which may account for the lack of any figures and armorials. The monument may well have been designed by one of the Thorpes, that family of architects who came from Kingscliffe in Northamptonshire. Thomas Thorpe was Master Mason at Kirby Hall and also at Dingley. Memorably at that house Edward Griffin had “God save the King, 1560” inscribed over the principle archway. Quite brave when you think Elizabeth I had been on the throne for two years by then and the King was Phillip II of Spain.
Please refer to the Glossary for any terms in the text that you are unfamiliar with.