Holy Trinity Church, Blatherwycke

Holy Trinity Church stands in the quiet village of Blatherwycke in Northamptonshire’s rolling countryside. Built of local limestone under Collyweston stone-slate roofs, it mixes Norman arches with later Gothic windows. A three-stage west tower rises above the nave, its top stage pierced by twin bell-openings. The chancel roof wears a finial and corner pinnacles, while the north chapel repeats the pattern. Decorated tracery lights the south wall, and carved heads run along a corbel table. The church is worth the journey for its layered past and fine craftsmanship. Dating from the 11th century, it was reshaped in the 12th, 14th and 17th centuries, leaving Norman doorways and 14th-century arcades. Clayton and Bell glazed the east window in the 19th century, and Kempe and Co added glass in 1921. The organ, built by P. Conacher and Company in 1908, still sounds across the nave. Memorials to the Stafford and O’Brien families recall the demolished hall, and Nicholas Stone’s work for Sir Christopher Hatton honours the poet Thomas Randolph. Inside, the nave and north aisle are linked by a two-bay arcade of semicircular arches. A three-bay 14th-century arcade separates chancel from chapel, where trefoil-headed niches flank the east window. The font is square on a circular base, and two pulpits stand ready for services. A blocked doorway and a piscina with a trefoil head add detail, while the west window of the aisle holds a 19th-century three-light arrangement. Outside, the plain parapet finishes with a single gargoyle on the north face, watching over the empty moat of Blatherwycke Hall.