NOTES ON TIDESWELL CHURCH. 121 
parishioner of Tideswell, being resident with his family in the 
parish, had no seats or benches in Tideswell Church where he 
might attend service, and he humbly prays for liberty to erect, at 
_his own cost, a loft over the entry into the chancel, 26 feet long 
and to feet wide, and, at the expense of the parishioners, to 
remove an old loft then existing over the chancel (Ayferstilium 
vetustum) to the tower for the use and advantage of the singers. 
The said gallery over the chancel was accordingly erected, but 
as to the form of the old loft which it displaced, and what became 
of it, we have no record. The present western gallery joining 
the tower, and lighted from the large window in the tower, was 
erected about sixty years ago, and the old gallery at the west end, 
whatever it was, taken down ; but I have in vain endeavoured to 
ascertain what it was like, and what became of it. I cannot 
gather that it possessed any special architectural beauty. 
Returning to the chancel screen, a glance at the photograph 
will show that its original design was too slender to support a 
rood loft, and yet a rood loft may have been early added as an after- 
thought. Two reasons may be alleged for this supposition—first, 
the existence of a square stone-staircase at the western side of the 
north corner of the chancel arch, some remains of which are now 
in the Vicarage garden, having been found under the boards at 
the spot where the stone-staircase stood, and identified by me by 
the aid of an old drawing and ground plan, made apparently 
about 1824. ‘The erection seems to have been mistaken for a 
stone pulpit (I heard it once called by an old parishioner, the son 
of the celebrated Tideswell singer, Samuel Slack, who remembered 
it still standing, “the old penitentiary”). It was 6 feet square. 
The entrance to it was from the south, giving access to a small 
newel staircase, the entrance being about 4 feet 2 inches by 22 
inches. The other reason for my regarding the old loft (vetustum 
Ayperstilium) as an afterthought, is drawn from the chisel marks and 
indentations on the responds of the chancel arch. Care must be 
taken, however, not to confound these marks, nor those on the 
chancel side, with indentations necessitated by the erection of 
Mr. Eccles’s gallery in 1724. This is not an easy task. It has 
