THE CHURCH OF NORBURY. 83 



liowever, of the fifteenth century there was a desire for better 



arrommndation for bells, and a small tower was built for their 



accommodation. Mr. Micklethwaite considers that it M'as 



erected " about a hundred years after the rebuilding of the 



chancel . . . and that it is a good ordinary work of the 



time." At all events, this tower was built some time in the 



first half of the fifteenth century. Its position in the middle 



of the south wall of the nave is decidedly unusual, and the 



lower story was utilised to form a porch. There is a good 



reason why such a position should have been chosen, which 



has not, I believe, been hitherto noted by anyone. There used 



to be a covered entrance or gallery from the adjacent manor 



house immediately to the west of the church, which allowed 



the Fitzherberts to enter a loft at the west end of the parish 



church without going into the open air. The old tenant 



of the manor house, whose family had been there for several 



generations, more than once pointed out to me, in the 



" .seventies," the exact position of this passage, much of which 



was still standing when Mr. Meynell visited the church early in 



the nineteenth century.* This communication at the west end 



of the fabric was probably the reason why the new tower was 



not built in the usual place. Somewhat later, towards the close 



of the fifteenth century, further great changes were made in the 



fabric. The nave was rebuilt, and a north aisle added, as well 



as a clerestory. The position of the tower rendered a south 



aisle impossible ; but chapels were designed east and west of 



the tower to produce as near an approach to an aisle as was 



possible without the removal of the tower. This work was 



designed and most of it carried out by Nicholas Fitzherbert, 



tenth lord of Norbury, who died in 1473. By the side of his 



monument, which originally stood in the south-east chapel, was 



the following epitaph, which has now been copied anew from 



Le Neve's manuscript collection of inscriptions: — 



" In Northbury church in Derbyshire, on a tombe in a little chapel, on 

 the right hand — 



* Such a communication with the parish church was not uncommon 

 in old days, in cases where the manor house adjoined the church, and 

 where the family was devout. There was another Derbyshire instance 

 at Morlev. 



