l8o THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN ESSEX. 



closer, until they were separated only by a shaft or muUion, and 

 geometrical tracing was introduced into the heads of the combined 

 windows. 



9. The mouldings of arches became somewhat more elaborate, 

 being divided by hollows and fillets into a greater number of 

 members. 



10. Buttresses became a feature of this period and were generally 

 placed at right angles to the wall, projecting some distance, and with 

 one, two, or more slopes. 



It is more difficult to point out a purely Early English church in 

 Essex, because I think it probable that nearly every parish would 

 have been provided with its church during the Norman period, and 

 therefore the work of the succeeding century would probably in the 

 main consist of alterations, enlargements, and sometimes of rebuild- 

 ing a portion of the edifice. 



The Church of St. Augustine, Birdbrook, gives us a very good 

 example of the style prevailing in the early part of the thirteenth 

 century. We have at the east end a group of three narrow lancet 

 windows with plain heads, with shafts and mouldings inside, with a 

 small single lancet window in the north side, and similar lancets on 

 north and south sides at west end of nave. These windows were no 

 doubt repeated, but they have been superseded at a later period by 

 more elaborate windows. There are also at the S.E. and N.E. 

 corners of chancel two buttresses to each corner, with two distinct 

 slopes, and similar buttresses to nave. This church is an example 

 of the adaptation of a Norman building to an Early English one ; the 

 remains of some of the old Norman windows being still visible. 

 One of the most interesting buildings of this period is the Chapel of 

 St. Nicholas at Little Coggeshall Abbey, of the Order of the 

 Cistercians. It is interesting from two circumstances : 



ist. It is practically unaltered from the original design. No 

 doubt repairs have from time to time been executed, but the whole 

 design is practically the same as when originally erected ; it has 

 neither been added to nor diminished. 



2nd. The jambs and arches of windows, strings, quoins, and other 

 features, are executed in moulded brick, and it is therefore probably 

 one of the earliest examples of moulded brickwork in the kingdom. 



The Abbey was founded by King Stephen and Maud, his 

 queen, in 1140, and we may fix the date of this building at about 

 1200. It is a very simple design, being in plan a parallelogram, 

 measuring 43 feet in length from east to west, and 20 feet in width 



