All Saints' Church, Earls Barton

To the north of All Saints' Church, Earls Barton, a mound and ditch almost abuts the church. Nikolaus Pevsner supposed that the lord of the manor regarded the church as an encroachment and planned to demolish it. Following the Norman Conquest of England an Anglo-Saxon called Waltheof had become the first Earl of Northampton. He married the niece of William I, Judith, and she was granted land at Buarton, later named Earls Barton. The mound may have been part of a manor. It is reasonable to suggest that All Saints was originally linked to a manor, rather than to a monastery. Earthworks are also present adjacent to the church at Sulgrave in Northamptonshire, where the remains of an Anglo-Saxon…

The tower at Earls Barton was probably originally a tower nave, the ground floor serving as the main body of the church with a small chancel annexed to it to the east, as at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, built at roughly the same period. A doorway on the south side of the tower, and originally another opening on the west face, allowed access to the outside. The upper floors possibly provided accommodation for the priest or acted as a safe-haven to house treasures, although it has been pointed out that such towers would have been deathtraps in a Viking raid, with their combustible wooden floors and multiple doors. There is a belfry at the uppermost storey. The tower is constructed…