Earls Barton

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Earls Barton. The tower of this Northamptonshire church is one of the best known examples of Late Saxon architecture. There are four pre-Norman stages, separated by string-courses. Each is elaborately decorated with strip-work and long-and-short quoining which all project boldly beyond the plastered face of the tower. There is currently a lively debate as to whether this type of strip-work is primarily decorative or structural in function; what cannot be denied is that the appearance of the tower reflects that of a timber-framed structure and that many of the components appear to have been prefabricated.

Richard N. Bailey

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