History of St Edmund's Hardingstone

History of St Edmund's Hardingstone

The greater part of the present building is of 14th century date, but the lower part of the tower may belong to an earlier structure. The 14th-century rebuilding comprised chancel, aisled nave, north porch, and the upper part of the tower; early in the 15th century the chapel on the south side of the chancel was added, or an older one modified, and the south porch erected.

Extensive repairs and alterations in the 18th century have left their mark on the fabric, especially in the chancel, the north, east, and part of the south walls of which appear to have been rebuilt on the old foundations. Other evidences of 18th-century reparation remain in the plastered ceilings of both porches, the finial on the gable of the north porch, the pinnacles of the tower, and a small font bowl in the churchyard.

The pointed bell-chamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the head, and the tower terminates in a battlemented parapet with 18th-century angle pinnacles surmounted by iron vanes. The wide pointed tower arch is of three square orders towards the nave, on chamfered imposts, the voussoirs being alternately of dark- and light-coloured ironstone.

The font is modern, with octagonal stone bowl, in the style of the 14th century. The oak pulpit is in memory of the Rev. N. T. Hughes, vicar 1892– 1913.

The fine alabaster monument, erected 'to the pious memory of Stephen Harvey Esq. [d. 1606] auditor of the Dutchy of Lancaster', his wife (d. 1590), and three sons, stands against the north wall of the chapel at its east end. The kneeling figures of the man and wife together with a shield of arms are above the cornice, below which are three canopied recesses containing the effigies of their sons, all kneeling, the youngest, Stephen Harvey, citizen and merchant of London 'by whose appointment this monument was erected', being in the middle. On either side are Sir Francis Harvey, kt., one of the Judges of the Common Pleas (eldest son) who died 1632 and 'lyeth hereby buried', and William Harvey, who died 1633 and was buried at Weston Favell. The arched canopies are supported by columns of black marble, and in the lower part of the monument are inscribed black marble tablets.

The monument of Sir Stephen Harvey, Knight of the Bath (d. 1630), son of Sir Francis, is against the south wall of the chapel, and is of white marble with recumbent figure in the habit of the time.

Within an arched recess in the south wall of the chancel is a table-tomb, the slab of which is without inscription and at present forms a seat. The arch is enriched with Renaissance ornament and is surmounted with the Tate crest. On the north wall is a large marble monument by Rysbrack with portrait busts to Bartholomew Clarke of Roehampton (d. 1746) father of Lady Bouverie, and Hitch Young (d. 1759) brother to Mrs. Clarke, and in the chancel floor are the marble grave-slabs of Bartholomew Tate (d. 1704) and Mary widow of William Tate (d. 1699). A tablet at the west end of the south aisle records the burial in a vault under the chancel of Benjamin Clarke (d. 1765), and the chancel contains a number of marble tablets to members of the Bouverie family, and one of alabaster to John Augustus Sheil Bouverie (d. 1894) and his son Francis Kenelm (d. 1891). In the aisles are a number of memorial tablets of 18th- and 19th century date, and one in oak in memory of twenty-five men of the parish who fell in the war of 1914–18. In the south aisle is an iron-bound chest with three locks.  A record of the organ's installation in 1894 can be found here.

 

The information above is principally taken from  A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 4 L. F. Salzman