Church Heritage Record 632377

West tower, nave, small south porch, south transept and chancel.

Nave estimated to be c 11m (36ft) x 5m (16ft), chancel 6m (19’5 ft) long and slightly narrower.

The church has locally been traditionally considered to be Saxon in origin (though Knotting is mentioned in Domesday book, no church is mentioned and this is of course not conclusive either way), although most sources including the VCH and Pevsner consider it to have been built 1140-70, the date of the earliest dated features and fittings. 

It certainly stood by 1174, when it is first mentioned as a chapel within the parish of the mother church in Melchbourne, but confirming it as property of the Prior and convent of St Neots, which status was confirmed again in 1190 and 1224. Clearly this was contested, and by 1275 Hugh Bossard of Knotting manor was the patron, and it stayed with this manor until the end of the 18th century.

The later development of the building has also been a matter of some contention. The nave is certainly at least Norman, the chancel was lengthened and apparently realigned in the 13th century but still incorporating the stub of the Norman south wall, and a south transept chapel added at about the same time. Windows were added at various times, so that the fenestration reflects the entire history of the building.

The west nave wall has a Norman opening of 1160-70 above the arch and is excessively thick around and above this, perhaps to carry a belcote. The tower was probably built in 1615, as dated on the parapet. The nave was apparently re-roofed in 1669, the date inscribed on one of the tie-beams, and the fabric shows signs of repair around this time.

Some sensitive renovation was undertaken by Henry Clutton in c 1875, rather than a full-scale restoration as occurred at other churches in the area. This sensitive approach to the building has been maintained to the present day, with SPAB-type tile repairs by Professor Richardson in the 1920s who also inserted a chimney flue and stack in the nave.  A small wooden porch was added in the early 20th century by the Duke of Bedford. The church has been in a joint benefice with Souldrop since 1735, and since 1982 with Sharnbrook and 2005 also with Felmersham.

The church is given some vertical emphasis by the 2-stage sheer unbuttressed tower, which has a plain parapet with a panel carrying the date 1616 on the “south” show side. The 2-light belfry openings are rectangular, plain with mullions, with wooden louvres with heart-shaped piercings and the date 1716 in the southern pair. There is a plain rectangular slit in each face of the lower stage, irregularly placed. Much eroded wooden clock face on the south side, which straddles the minimal demarcation in the stonework between the stages. Brass Weathervane.

The most obvious external evidence of the Norman origins is a small, narrow, plain round-headed lancet to the west of the south doorway, though this is much renewed.  There are several obvious breaks in the fabric, the most extreme of which is at the east side of the west bay of the nave with its flat corner buttresses, usually considered indicative of Norman work, and regular coursing of thin slabs. East of the break is irregular walling incorporating large dark red river cobbles, the Norman window described above is punched into one of these patches. Much repointing has taken place and one might argue that the window has been moved, and the dating of this masonry is unclear.

The fenestration of the nave is otherwise medieval, with a cusped lancet with hoodmould to plain stops in the west bay, and a square-headed 3-light with pointed arch heads in the east bay of the north wall, this much renewed. The south transept has a 3-light pointed window of the early 13th century in the gabled south wall, with an eroded, probably 17th-century tablet with a moulded frame and hood embedded in the wall to the right of it and similar smaller tablet to the left, set lower down.  Above the window in the gable is a similarly dated sundial with faded painted square dial and iron gnomon. The east wall is pierced by a pointed 2-light window with cusped heads and hoodmould as the nave windows of this date described above.

The chancel is early medieval for the first bay of the south wall but otherwise apparently rebuilt in the late 13th century, and deflects to the north (weeping) beyond it, suggesting a reorientation of the chancel, perhaps when lengthened; this is an interesting contribution to the long-lived debate on weeping chancels, on which there are as many theories as “low-side windows”, one of which is also preserved in this short but interesting stretch of medieval wall. 

The south wall has a 2-light as in the transept and east of this a square 2-light window with 4-centred pointed heads, perhaps of the 16th or early 17th century. The north wall has a domestic square 2-light with wooden mullion, probably of the 18th or early 19th century. The east wall is pierced by a 3-light pointed window of stepped lancets.

The south doorway is protected by a gabled porch of attractively weathered wooden planks set vertically on a stone footing, within which the doorway is of the 17th-century with a moulded 4-centred head to the external face, with paterae stops. The similarly pointed door with lattice bracing looks contemporary.  Moving inside and looking back, one sees that there are jumbled fragments of Norman chevron carving in the inner face of the head.

Inside, the nave walls are painted with a thick coat of whitewash. The interior has a strong post-Reformation feel, most of the furnishings and fittings and the roof construction being of this period, but the Norman chancel arch and the basically 13th-century architectural frame remind us of the church’s antiquity. The lighting was by gas lamps installed in the 1920s and attractive, with a fine lamp in the form of an openwork chandelier in the chancel.

The chancel arch is of two orders of bulbous chevron to the west and one plain order to the east. There are clear diagonal tool marks on most surfaces. The arches rest on imposts, the southern of which has been cut away, these in turn rest upon engaged columns with cushion capitals.The label on the west face is chamfered with a groove, only the upper part survives.

The roof structure has been much repaired in recent years but retains the post-medieval tie-beams, one carved with the date 1669 and CW, and the curved wind-braces. The western of the three beams also has arch-braces, and the eastern two have stone mask corbels in the north wall. The stumps of wall-posts and redundant wooden corbels can be seen on the south side in the western bay of the nave, and a corbel above the transept arch to the east of this is misaligned with it and with another wooden corbel.

The transept has been kept clear of clutter and is a most attractive space, the only furnishing is a Jacobean-style book-case, probably of the early 20th century. One point of interest is that the gable of the roof space of the transept has been blocked with bricks in the post-Reformation period, and a ceiling inserted. The double chamfered pointed arch has a 13th-century moulded console on the east side and a perhaps 15th-century on the other.

The chancel is demarcated by the spiked gates, painted in dark colours, installed to prevent the misuse of the chancel for cock-fighting as already noted. Moving into the chancel, this is also kept quite clear, with chairs, communion rails and altar table. A ceiling has been inserted which has concealed part of the very plain post-medieval timber roof structure with tie-beams.  The ceiling and walls are whitewashed with the exception of the jambs in the south wall which would appear to be the deliberately exposed junction of the original chancel wall with the later realignment, already discussed. The floors are of stone flags with ledgers, with a medieval grave slab with floriate cross set sideways under the chancel arch, and quarry tiles in the sanctuary.