The Church of St Botolph's, Slapton, also referred to as Slapton, St Botolph, is the ancient

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the village of Slapton near

Towcester Towcester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative centre of the South Northamptonshire district. Towcester is on ...

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as wel ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Constructed sometime around the late 12th and early 13th centuries the church is notable for its almost complete surviving set of late medieval wall paintings, widely considered the finest in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. The interior was described by

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

as "memorably intimate". The church is designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Constructed on an area of high ground at the north end of the modern village, the churches history is intertwined with that of the villagers and Slapton Manor, located immediately to the west of the church. Its construction would have been overseen by the Manor House, at that time owned by a branch of the

De Lucy de Lucy or de Luci (alternate spellings: Lucey, Lucie, Luce, Luci) is the surname of an old Norman noble family originating from Lucé in Normandy, one of the great baronial Anglo-Norman families which became rooted in England after the Norma ...

family who are commemorated by the inclusion of their family crest in the east window over the high altar. The Knight family, later keepers of the manor, are also commemorated widely in the churches monuments. It was initially built sometime in the late 12th to early 13th century and was added to in the 14th century. The wall paintings were an evolving work between the 14th and early 16th centuries and being situated in the naves, the area of the church associated with the

laity In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all Church membership, members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-Ordination, ordained members of religious orders, e ...

, represent the religious preoccupations of the common people. The wall paintings were probably whitewashed at the time of all the others in the country during the Edwardian reformation. The church continued to act as the villages parish church under the new Protestant church structure and contains a variety of post reformation fixtures and fittings. The vicarage located to the north is 19th century. The tower was reconstructed in 1878–9. The wall paintings were uncovered in the 1950s-1970's and have made the building one of Northamptonshire's most significant medieval antiquarian sites.

Structure

The building consists of a chancel, a nave, a southern lean to lady chapel, a west tower, and a south porch. Like the vast majority of medieval churches, it is oriented axially towards the sanctuary and the high altar in the chancel at the east end of the church. It is constructed from local limestone and ironstone, a characteristically Northamptonshire material. On the south wall of the main body are two traceried gothic windows and a porch, inside which there are a couple of carved Mass dials. On the north elevation, the nave and chancel, there are also two windows and a walled up door. The chancel is lit by three large gothic windows and has a small priests door to the south.

Interior

The two naves, the principal nave in the north aisle and the lady chapel in the south aisle, are divided by an arcade of 3 bays. The chancel is divided from the north aisle by a solid stone

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

wall punctured by a central door and two traceries windows. The south aisle has a small

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

at the east end of the south wall where the lady altar would have been prior to the reformation. The chancel has a number of niches in the wall one of which was probably the

Easter Sepulchre An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of Late Medieval British and Irish church interior architecture. Description The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposi ...

The Slapton Wall Paintings

The Church of St Botolph, Slapton is home to The Slapton Wall Paintings, a notably complete collection of 14th-15th century wall paintings which dominate the interior and greet the visitor immediately on entry. In the north aisle on the north wall a large depiction of

St Christopher Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximinus Daia (). ...

carrying the

Child Jesus The Christ Child—also known as Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, Child Jesus, Divine Child, Divine Infant and the Holy Child—refers to Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ during his early years. The term refers to a period of life of Jesus, Jesus' l ...

and over the capitals of the arcade to the south (from left to right)

St George and the dragon In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a huma ...

(partly lost), the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and

St Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

overseeing the

Weighing of souls The weighing of souls () is a religious Motif (narrative), motif in which a person's life is assessed by weighing their soul (or some other part of them) immediately before or after death in order to judge their fate. This motif is seen in medie ...

, Satan inspiring two gossips, The Ecstasy of St Francis, and the

Mass of Saint Gregory The Mass of Saint Gregory is a subject in Catholic art which first appears in the late Middle Ages and was still found in the Counter-Reformation. Pope Gregory I (–604) is shown saying Mass just as a vision of Christ as the ''Man of Sorrows'' ...

showing the

Man of Sorrows Man of Sorrows, a biblical term, is paramount among the prefigurations of the Messiah identified by the Bible in the passages of Isaiah 53 ('' Servant songs'') in the Hebrew Bible. It is also an iconic devotional image that shows Christ, usual ...

. In the south aisle along the south wall are images of

Saint Eligius Eligius (; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660), venerated as Saint Eligius, was a Frankish goldsmith, courtier, and bishop who was chief counsellor to Dagobert I and later Bishop of Noyon–Tournai. His deeds were recorded in ''Vita Sancti Eligii' ...

the blacksmith with the Virgin Mary and

St Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's nam ...

, and the Three Living and the Three Dead (a

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning represen ...

) to the right of the south door; above the capitals in the south aisle are scenes of the Suicide of

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...

and the Annunciation of the Virgin

References

External links

*{{cite web, title=Video Guide to the Slapton Wall Paintings, website=

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