rendered the upper part of the chancel's south wall liable to collapse. The angle at which the squint was cut can only mean that either the High Altar stood much further west in the middle ages than it does today, or alternatively, that there was a secondary altar, placed half way along the chancel, for use upon those occasions when masses needed to be celebrated simultaneously at the High Altar and the chantry altar. The latter theory is the more probable. What may have been the secondary altar survived until Nichols' time, and is illustrated in his 'History and Antiquities' (reproduced below).  It was first noticed by Francis Peck in 1729, who, as a clergyman, perceptively commented 'In the chancel, against the North wall, going up to the steps of the altar is a stone figure; whether an altar, a credential table, or a monument, is uncertain. The inhabitants have no tradition about it'.  This unusual, possibly unique feature must have been thrown out of the church in the C19. The possibility of this feature being an altar has been previously discounted on account of it being north facing, but north is sometimes, exceptionally, permitted to perform the ritual role of liturgical east. If the accuracy of J. Schnebbelie's illustration can be trusted though, the feature concerned was seemingly too low in height to have been an altar. Could it have been cut down at the time of the abolition of chantries in 1547, owing its survival for a further 300 years to some alternative use being found for it? The squint was filled-in in 1547 or thereabouts, but Woodyer re-opened it in 1883. Not realising the squint's unusual provenance, he deflected the eastern part of its line to allow the High Altar to be viewed through it. This was now possible, as Woodyer had demolished the chancel's medieval south wall, and a clear line of vision to the chancel's east wall could now be had through the new arch between Woodyer's organ chamber and the chancel. There is another incised cross slab set into the floor of the chantry chapel, but the cross is almost completely worn away. Parts of the inscription around its edge remain visible, and F.A. Greenhill, in his 'Incised Slabs of Leicestershire and Rutland' (1929) transcribes the inscription as' + Hic (jacet) die Decembr(is) Anno D(orni)ni MCC(CC)xliiii L(ittera) D(omi)nic(ali) D Cui(u)s A(n)i(m)e P(ro)pieiet De(us) Ame(n)'. This might be the memorial to a priest of Sproxton who passed away in December 1444, but unfortunately none of the names of Sproxton's C15 incumbents have come down to us. Between the two windows in the south wall of the aisle is a square headed recess. It cannot have ever been a doorway given that there is a buttress of medieval origin occupying the same position externally, so it must be presumed that it once accommodated a wall monument or memorial, but whose? The only memorials mentioned by Nichols as being in the south
Previous Previous Next Next Sproxton