By C. E. Ponting, PSA. 355 ~ 
the Church for the purposes of restoration, dated 27th May, 1886 :— 
1.—The portions of original wall on the west show that the 
building of which they formed part was of quite minor 
importance as regards dimensions—it can only have been 
10ft. 8in. wide and about 17ft. high, with walls only 2ft. 
thick. These dimensions are quite incompatible with the 
idea of its being the original nave of a Church having such 
a tower as this. 
2.—The east wall of the nave is nearly 4ft. thick, and there can 
be little doubt that it is of the same early work as the 
tower, and that the original arch, or doorway (if any) 
had, owing to its small dimensions, given way to the ~ 
modern brick arch, which existed previous to the recent 
restoration. 
3.—The remains of early work at C show that the building 
eastward of the tower was lft. wider, northwards, than 
the existing nave, which is not central with the tower. 
Is it not more reasonable to suppose that there were was 
originally a nave on the site of the existing one (and of the same 
length) with chapels on the other three sides of the tower ? (the 
western adjunct might have been a baptistry or porch) or even 
that the usual orientation was reversed, the apse for the high altar 
_. being at the west? The greater elaboration of the western arch 
would favour either of these alternatives rather than the idea that 
the eastern arch formed the entrance to the sanctuary. (It must 
- be borne in mind that there were formerly entrances to the Church 
in the north and south walls of the aisles.) 
Then as to the date of this early work: in 1888 I submitted 
these drawings to Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A., who expressed 
a very definite opinion that the tower is a Saxon one of the 9th 
century, the western arch having been altered in its caps, and the 
eastern arch renewed. I have seen more Saxon work since that 
time than I had previously, and I can now, as then, see nothing in 
even the earliest work here incompatible with its having been done in 
early Norman times—perhaps by the aid of Saxon craftsmen. 
Unfortunately, before I took the restoration in hand an excellent 
