S52 Agreement for Building a Chapel at Lacock. 



I infer from the document which is the subject of this paper that it 

 probably had an aisle.^ This however must be considered a doubtful 

 point. It is evident also, from Aubrey's statement, that at the time 

 of the dissolution the abbey had bells ; * and this implies a belfry, 

 but its site is not known, nor whether it formed part of the original 

 plan or was a subsequent addition. On the north side of the church, 

 in the four westernmost bays, there were lancet windows, one in each 

 bay, by which light was admitted over the roof of the original 

 cloister. In the second bay from the west there was an original 

 doorway from the cloisters, which must have been closed when the 

 present cloister was built ;^ and the window above it was blocked up,* 

 probably at the same time. In the fourth bay from the west there 

 Was an arched doorway, but of what date is not known, which must 



* If this was the case, the plan may have borne some resemblance to the con- 

 temporary church of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, at Harnham, which was also 

 a foundation of Ela, Countess of Salisbury. The latter is not vaulted, and ap- 

 pears to have consisted of a main building without any structural distinction of 

 nave and choir, with a western porch, and a continuous north aisle of which 

 the eastern end formed a chapel. I am aware that the arrangement has been 

 supposed to be different. 



* Aubrey says " Here was a good ring of bells, which Sir [William] 

 Sharington sold, when he built Rea-bridge to divert the travelling by his 

 house." (See Jackson's Aubrey, p. 90.) Sir William can only have re-built 

 Ray-bridge, as it is on or very near the site of the bridge of Lacock, mentioned 

 in a grant of the Empress Maud and her son Henry to the monastery de Dro- 

 gonis Fonte, afterwards Stanley Abbey. (See Bowles' History of Bremhill, p.96.) 



' A vaulting shaft of the cloister comes against this doorway. The actual 

 shaft is modern, but copied from the old one, for which it was substituted when 

 the present doorway was made. The Perpendicular builders apparently left no 

 communication with the church at this point. To the west of the jamb of the 

 modern doorway the remains of the original one can be traced, having a seg- 

 mental arch on its inner side, above which a string-course, to be noticed later, 

 appears to have been carried as a hood-moulding. 



* As this is the only one of the four windows that still remains, it is fortunate 

 that during the past year I was able to examine the head of it. It proved to be a 

 rather sharp lancet without external mouldings. It had a centre joint, and one 

 side had settled a little. It was certainly walled up during the existence of the 

 church, for a stone water-pipe which conveyed water from the church roof had 

 been carried down the face of the wall by which it was closed. These curious 

 pipes are thus shown to have been a late addition to the church. The external 

 hood-moulding had bten cut off, and portions of it were found amongst the ma- 

 terial which tilled up the window. 



