A  Story in Stone

The Nave: Centuries of Change

The Nave we see today has seen more changes than any other part of the church.  Its northern wall was pierced circa 1170 by the arcade of 2 ½  Norman arches dividing it from the North Aisle, and in less than a century, further changes were to occur, so that by the time of Queen Eleanor’s death in 1290, the original Saxon Nave was, apart from the upper walls, roof and its western end, barely recognisable….

The High Medieval Church

Following the church reforms of the 12^th and early 13^th Century, the 13^th Century was a time when the church’s influence had grown rapidly. With greater income from tithes, the church was able to support more clergy and, with generous patrons and benefactors, was able to embark on more ambitious building works in an age when new, more elegant, and adventurous building techniques were being applied across Europe. In the Early English Gothic style, rounded arches gave way to lighter, pointed arches in windows, doorways, and arcades. The key features are pointed arches, lancet windows (tall and narrow  with a pointed arch at the top) and clustered shafts of tall, narrow piers replacing the massive, rounded ones of the Norman style. 

And so, we find that the South Aisle, south doorway, and Lady Chapel are all mid-13^th Century work. The pointed arches and slender columns of the southern arcade are typical of the Early English Gothic style, although no windows of this period survive in the South Aisle, nor in the rest of the church, apart from a few traces in the Lady Chapel. 

The Chancel underwent a complete re-modelling in the mid-13^th Century, and this also involved the opening up of a larger Chancel arch in the east wall of the Nave, similar in height and width to the arch between the South Aisle and Lady Chapel.  It is also conceivable that the original timber screen with central doorway that now separates the Choir from the Lady Chapel was installed in the (then) new Chancel arch as part of this mid-13^th Century re-ordering, though it may be a 14^th Century addition. 

Geddington’s bridge across the River Ise dates from this period too, and all of this activity clearly indicates the prestige and importance of Geddington in the high medieval period, derived no doubt from its close royal associations. 

The Church Structure Completed

With the Abbot of Pipewell as the church’s patron from1358 onwards, the following century saw the completion of the east end of the Chancel, the tower and the clerestory (the upper level of windows – the ‘clear storey’ - in both the Chancel and the Nave), so that the structure of the church we see today was essentially complete by the mid-15^th Century.

Ye Heye Rode

If we look up to where the Nave’s southern wall joins its east wall, we see two oblong openings, one above the other. These were doorways (probably accessed by ladder) leading to the rood loft and beam that existed until their removal in 1558.  Geddington had both a ‘Stooping Rood’ and a ‘High Rood’ above. We don’t know exactly what the Geddington Rood looked like, but the diagram below gives a general indication.

Medieval rood screens were often elaborately decorated, and the figures were also sometimes clothed.  Some churches even had wardrobes of clothes and shoes: a bequest was made in 1517 to the coat that belonged to ‘the Stooping Rood’ at Geddington Church.  The high rood beam probably had a second beam fixed parallel to, and in front of it, with planking between the two beams, which would have been accessed via the higher opening (now blocked up) that can still be seen. The High Rood would also have had a cross with the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist surmounting it.  The one element of Geddington’s medieval rood screen that does survive is the lower part that now sits in an arch between the Lady Chapel and the Chancel.

Medieval Rood Loft at St. Margaret's Church in Herefordshire

An idea of the brightly-coloured decoration found on many medieval rood lofts can be gained from the photos (below) of a 15^th Century rood loft (Jubé)  in the chapel of St. Fiacre, Le Faouët Morbihan in Brittany. (Pictures: Office de Tourisme du Pays du Roi Morvan; Marie Faouët; and  Le blog de Jean-Yves Cordier)

Its removal allowed the arch to be raised by 2 metres as part of George Gilbert Scott’s 1855-57 re-ordering, which also saw the removal of the ‘Tresham Screen’  to create an open view through to the Chancel and the High Altar.  This change was inspired by the Oxford Movement, that had begun in the 1830s and developed into Anglo-Catholicism. This open aspect lasted 51 years.