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Description
In around 1096, Simon de Senlis joined the First Crusade to the Holy Land. There he would have seen the Holy Sepulchre, located near the centre of Jerusalem. He would have seen it as a round church supported on eighteen columns or piers with an ambulatory around the perimeter on the west of the church, and the well attested site of Christ's tomb at the centre. There would have been four apses at each of the cardinal points, and on the east side there would have been a facade, so that the east apse was accessible directly from the rotunda. After restoration, this church is what would have remained of a 4th century church built by Constantine I, with the rotunda replacing an earlier Roman temple.

It is likely that after his return to Northampton, Simon de Senlis built the round church of the Holy Sepulchre in Northampton, and it is approximately half the size of the church in Jerusalem. The rotunda is supported on eight round piers with an ambulatory running round the full perimeter, without apses. The remains of a Norman window in the present nave however suggests that the original round church had a chancel to the east.

Description
In around 1096, Simon de Senlis joined the First Crusade to the Holy Land. There he would have seen the Holy Sepulchre, located near the centre of Jerusalem. He would have seen it as a round church supported on eighteen columns or piers with an ambulatory around the perimeter on the west of the church, and the well attested site of Christ's tomb at the centre. There would have been four apses at each of the cardinal points, and on the east side there would have been a facade, so that the east apse was accessible directly from the rotunda. After restoration, this church is what would have remained of a 4th century church built by Constantine I, with the rotunda replacing an earlier Roman temple.

It is likely that after his return to Northampton, Simon de Senlis built the round church of the Holy Sepulchre in Northampton, and it is approximately half the size of the church in Jerusalem. The rotunda is supported on eight round piers with an ambulatory running round the full perimeter, without apses. The remains of a Norman window in the present nave however suggests that the original round church had a chancel to the east.