82 



2r!)r 43atc of t\)t l^avist) (!E!jttvcl) of i^tcHiottvur, 



By W. Dashwood Fane. 



HE Parish Church of Melbourne, in Derbyshire, is 

 the grandest of its class in a wide district around 

 it, and is remarkable for the extent of original 

 Romanesque structure which it retains, and for the 

 singularity of its plan. 



It can scarcely be doubted that the existing Church was 

 on[i^'-i//a//y designed and constructed with — 

 nave and side aisles, 

 central tower of one outer stage, 

 upper and under chancels, 

 two equal transepts, 

 three eastward apses, 

 western recessed doorway, 

 two western towers, 



continuous galleries, extending along the western end of the 

 Church, the two sides of the nave, round the four sides 

 of the central tower, with a doorway into the upper chancel, 

 stairs in each of the western towers up to the gallery, 

 grouted rubble vaulting under the western gallery and the 

 upper chancel, and over the nave galleries — all of early 

 Romanesque character — 

 and that the whole of such structure was completed within a 

 short space of time, probably continuously. 



