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All Saints' Church, Earls Barton is a noted Anglo-Saxon Church of England Parish Church in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire. After the Danish raids on England, Medehampstede Abbey, a few miles away from Earls Barton was rebuilt in about AD 970 to become Peterborough Abbey. It is generally accepted that the church in Earls Barton was built around this period at the end of the tenth century. Even though only the tower survives from the original church, this is one of the best examples of later Anglo-Saxon architecture. ==The tower== 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.〔Fisher, 1959, page 57〕 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.〔Fernie, 1983, page 136 & page 186, note 32, referring to Taylor.〕 There is a belfry at the uppermost storey. The tower is constructed of stone rubble and rendered on the outside, and is decorated with vertical limestone pilaster strips and strapwork. At the corners of the tower, the walls are strengthened by long vertical quoin stones bedded on horizontal slabs, and hence is termed ''long and short work''. The way in which the tower is decorated is unique to Anglo-Saxon architecture, and the decorated Anglo-Saxon tower itself is a phenomenon that occurs locally, including Barnack near Peterborough and Stowe Nine Churches in Northamptonshire. The storeys are divided by projecting stone string courses, and at each successive storey, the walls become slightly thinner, creating a step at each string course. The vertical pilaster strips continue up the tower, and are interspersed with stone strip arches at lower level and triangular decoration at upper level, in some instances resulting in a criss-cross pattern. In the 12th century the small Anglo-Saxon chancel, narrower than the tower,〔Richmond, 1986, page 176〕〔Fisher, 1969, page 45〕 was razed and replaced by a nave so that the tower now stands at the west end.〔Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, pages 195-196〕 This nave was enlarged later in the 12th century and then renovated in the 13th and early 14th centuries. The east end of the chancel is 13th century.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「All Saints' Church, Earls Barton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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