70 BRADBOURNE CHURCH. 



Society, because no one has ever ventured to proclaim the fact 

 before. I have marked on the plan the portion to which I give 

 a pre-Norman date. 



Now, as to the material evidence. We will examine it close, too, 

 presently. And first, as to what there is not in the way of 

 distinct and usually recognised Saxon details. There is no 

 "long and short" work, there is no window splayed equally 

 inside and out, no turned stone balusters, no mid-wall shafts, no 

 triangularly-headed openings, no strip-work, and no arches with 

 continuous imposts. I will give the anti-Saxon as much as 

 I can. We are, therefore, driven back upon the character of the 

 masonry, and I may at once observe that the absence of the 

 whole of the above-mentioned details does not immediately put 

 Saxon out of the question — far from it. The variety or richness 

 of ornamentation in architecture is always influenced or ruled by 

 the nature of the local material, and in poor communities the 

 builders must make use of the materials nearest to their hand. 

 It is the natural result of circumstances. In the case of Brad- 

 bourne Church, what I call the earliest work — that at the west end 

 and north side of the tower — is formed of just such stone as was 

 to be found on the surface ; it is not even hammer-dressed, but 

 roughly shaped for bedding and laid in courses with wide joints, 

 after the usual pre-Domesday manner, and specially marked and 

 deeply pitted with the impress of age, and distinctly differing from 

 the Norman work which has been imposed upon it. There are no 

 buttresses to the tower, or, indeed, to any part of the church, so 

 I make no point of this ; but it may be borne in mind that the 

 absence of buttresses is a distinct pre-Norman condition, and the 

 absence of "long and short work" and other well-known Saxon 

 features may be properly accounted for by the nature of the 

 material convenient for use. On the north side of the tower, 

 7ft. gin. from the ground, in the early walling, there is a rude 

 opening, with sloping sides (A. A. on Plan), and 6ft. 6in. above it, 

 in the Norman walling, a proper Norman window, now built up. 

 The rude opening passes into the wall to the depth of 4ft., and is 

 filled up on the inside. It is not Norman ; its use as an opening 



