Folksworth

32. FOLKSWORTH (B.b.).

(O.S. 6 in. ^(a)V S.W., ^(b)IX N.W.)

Folksworth is a small parish and village 6 m. S.W. of Peterborough. The church is the principal monument.

Ecclesiastical

^a(1). Parish Church of St. Helen stands N. of the village. The walls are of rubble, roughly coursed: the dressings are of Barnack stone: the roofs are covered with slates. The church, consisting of chancel and Nave, was built about the middle of the 12th century. The South Transept was added c. 1300, and the South Porch in the first half of the 16th century. The church was restored in 1850 when the Chancel was re-built and the North Vestry added; the bell-turret is also modern, and the N. wall of the nave has been largely re-built.

The chancel-arch and N. doorway are fairly good examples of 12th-century work.

Architectural Description—The Chancel is modern, except for the mid 12th-century chancel-arch (Plates 77 and 132), which is semi-circular and of two moulded orders with cheveron-ornament; the responds have each two detached shafts with capitals carved with scrolls or scallops with a human face and festoons with a face; the hollow-chamfered abaci are continued along the face of the walls.

The Nave (38¾ ft. by 18 ft.) has in the N. wall two modern windows; the N. doorway (Plate 139) of c. 1150 has an arch of two orders, the outer moulded and round and the inner flat and forming a tympanum carved on the face with a diaper-pattern; the jambs have each a free shaft with moulded base, scalloped capital and moulded abacus continued round the jamb as an impost. In the S. wall is a two-centred arch of c. 1300, of two continuous chamfered orders with chamfered bases; the early 16th-century S. doorway has chamfered jambs and four-centred head with a moulded label; further W. is a 14th-century window with two trefoiled ogee lights in a square head with a moulded label and head-stops.

The South Transept (17½ ft. by 12¾ ft.) has in the E. wall a window of c. 1300 and of two trefoiled lights with a plain spandrel in a two-centred head with a moulded label and mask-stops; at the internal sill-level is a moulded string-course continued round the transept. In the S. wall is a window of c. 1300 and of three graduated trefoiled lights in a two centred outer-order and all modern externally. In the W. wall is a 16th-century window of two three-centred lights in a square head.

The South Porch is of early 16th-century date and has a four-centred outer archway of two continuous chamfered orders with a moulded label.

Fittings—Bell: one by Norris, 1660. Coffin-lids: In N. transept—two small, slightly coped and tapering slabs, with scrolled crosses, 13th-century. Font: octagonal bowl with hollow-chamfered under-edge, octagonal stem with broach-stops, making the lower part square, chamfered plinth, mortices on bowl for fixing cover, 15th- or 16th-century. Monuments: In churchyard—S.W. of porch, (1) to William Cockerill, 1671–2, head-stone, slab and foot-stone; (2) to William Gidding, 1705, head-stone with hour-glass, etc. Piscina: In S. transept—in S. wall, with chamfered jambs and two-centred head, moulded sill and sex-foiled drain, c. 1300. Plate: includes cup of 1569, with three bands of incised ornament, cover-paten of same date with the date engraved on the knob, stand-paten of 1697 with gadrooned edge to bowl and base, inscribed on under side "W.H, D."

Condition—Good, much restored.

Secular

^b(2). Homestead Moat, called Otter Pond, 650 yards S.W. of the church, is of roughly oval form with slight indications of an outer enclosure on the W. side.

^b(3). The Elms, house, barn and moat, 700 yards S.S.W. of the church. The House is of two storeys with attics; the walls are of brick: the roofs are covered with slates. It was built early in the 17th century. Late in the same century the S. part of the main block was added or re-built. There are modern additions on the N.W. and S.E. The S. front has an original two-storeyed porch and N. of it is an original window with stone jambs and moulded brick label; it is now blocked. There are two original buttresses at this end of the house and a chimney-stack with two diagonal shafts. Inside the house the main ceiling-beam is partly exposed.

The Barn, W. of the house, is of late 17th-century date and of brick, with a thatched roof. The roof is of three bays with chamfered tie-beams. The Garden-wall, running E. from the N. end of the house, is of early 17th-century date, partly of brick and partly of rubble.

The Moat, formerly surrounded the house, but is now largely obliterated.

Condition—Of house, good.

^b(4). Dovecote, 120 yards E. of (3), is a large square building of early 17th-century date. The walls are of brick with a plinth, offset and string-course. The S. and W. walls have each a square-headed window of three lights with chamfered oak frame and mullions. The pyramidal roof has lost most of its slates.

Condition—Ruinous.

^b(5). Cottage, 60 yards N. of (4), is of one storey, timber-framed and plastered; the roofs are thatched. It was built in the 17th century and has some exposed timber-framing inside.

Condition—Bad.

^b(6). Cottage, three tenements, on the W. side of the road, 100 yards E. of (5), is of two storeys, partly timber-framed and plastered and partly of brick; the roofs are thatched. It was built late in the 17th century.

Condition—Fairly good.

^b(7). Base of Cross, at back of inn, 480 yards S. of the church. A stone base, octagonal above and square below, with socket for octagonal shaft, probably 14th-century, not in situ.