DALE CHURCH : ITS STRUCTURAL PECULLARITIES. 



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on that side are left undecorated. It is probable that the aisle 

 was always shut off from the nave and chancel in pre- Reformation 

 days, and that the fifteenth-century oak partition merely replaced 

 a wall. If so, this opening may have been of the nature of those 

 frequently found in the sides of chancels where anchorholds 

 were attached externally ; as at Rettenden (Essex), Crickhowel 

 (South Wales), Clifton Campville (Staffordshire), Warmington 

 (Warwick), and probably Taddington, in our own county. These 



Fig. 3. 



openings were usually from the second story of the anchorhold, 

 the ground story communicating with the chancel by a door ; the 

 aisle at Dale, however, originally had no chamber above, but it 

 is not unlikely that it was divided into two chambers, an eastern 

 and a western, by a transverse partition, the westward window of 

 its south wall not agreeing with the others. 



We can form a tolerably correct idea of the general appearance 

 of this building previous to the fifteenth-century alterations : — 

 The walls of what is now the basement were higher. The 

 chancel and nave were covered with a longitudinal gabled roof 

 of high pitch ; and there was a bell-turret at the west end. 

 The large chancel windows were surmounted with lofty pointed 

 arches, and were filled with geometric tracery ; probably they 



