Northamptonshire is a happy hunting ground for church crawlers, being particularly famous for its spires. There are dozens of major churches, ranging from the internationally important Saxon work at Brixworth and Earl’s Barton, through to Sir Ninian Comper’s early twentieth-century masterpiece in Wellingborough, with all periods and styles in between well represented. The county’s geology is crucial to the appearance of its buildings; there are at least five different local stones, each of which has its own individual character. In this book church historian David Gouldstone presents a selection of the best of Northamptonshire’s churches, pointing out special features and capturing what it is that makes them special as well as relating them to their historical periods and highlighting the stories of people associated with the buildings.

This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Northamptonshire over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this attractive county in England.

David Gouldstone currently lives in Cambridgeshire but lived and worked in Hertfordshire for many years. He has had a lifelong interest in the churches of Hertfordshire and is the author of the blog Icknield Indagations which is devoted to church architecture. He is also a published author, having written Elvis Costello: A Man Out of Time, as well as several journal articles.