The central England borough of Northampton, on…

The central England borough of Northampton, on the River Nene, an administrative center for the kingdom of Mercia in the eighth century, had become significant in the late eleventh century, when the Normans built town walls and a large castle under the stewardship of the Norman earl, Simon de Senlis.

Construction of the unusual round church of Saint Sepulchre had begun in 1100 on the orders of the Earl, who had just returned from the first Crusade.

Based on a plan of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, it is completed about 1110.

Today Northampton's oldest standing building, the Church of The Holy Sepulchre is one of the largest and best-preserved of England’s three remaining round churches.