On Thursday 26th September – a rather damp morning, although the sun came out later – 22 members of the Local History group visited St Peter’s church in Marefair for a guided talk from one of the Friends of St Peter’s – a very knowledge guide, Mary. She explained that the church, in the Norman Romanesque style, was rebuilt from an earlier Saxon minster, in around 1150 AD. The church is thought to be associated with Simon de Senlis II, and its style probably influenced by the now demolished St Andrews monastery. Sir George Gilbert Scott restored much of the church in 1850, including the altar.
The beautiful arches with elaborately carved capitals were painstakingly restored by the local antiquarian Anne Baker (who lived next door in Hazelrigg House with her brother, George), removing the many layers of plaster and whitewash with a bone knife in the 1830s. They now look brand new!
Following our visit to the church, some of the group went over the road to explore the site of Northampton Castle, although so little now remains it is hard to imagine how magnificent it must have been in medieval times. So many English kings had stayed at the castle, and even held Parliaments there, right up to the 17th century, when Charles II ordered the destruction of the castle as punishment for the town supporting the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War.
Report and photos by Chris Rowe