By C. E. Ponting, F.S.A. 187 
Tue Cuaurcu or §. Mary, Castiz Eaton. 
In a paper which I wrote some twelve years ago, on the Churches 
of Purton and Wanborough,' I alluded to the widely-prevailing 
supposition that there were only three Parish Churches in England 
: possessing a tower and a spire at separate points of the building—these 
being the two forming the subject of that paper and Ormskirk, in 
Lancashire. The doubt I then expressed as to the number of such 
Churches being thus limited has been strengthened by subsequent 
experience, and here is an instance where, although the spire is 
less developed than in either of the cases previously named—is, in 
. fact, a mere turret spirelet-—the cause which led to the two features 
_ was probably the same, viz., the necessity for further space for bells 
as the number increased, when, instead of the sanctus bell only, a 
peal of bells was required. There are several instances in Wiltshire, 
or just outside’ its borders, of the stone turret remaining on either 
_ the east or west ends of the nave, but where no second bell-tower has 
been erected, ¢.g., Biddestone S. Nicholas, Corston, Great Chalfield, — 
Acton Turville. There were two others which have been removed 
‘in recent years—one at Biddestone S. Peter, which was re-erected 
in the grounds of the Manor House at Castle Combe, and another 
at Leigh Delamere, re-erected over the schools on the demolition of 
the old Church in 1846. There are traces of another east end 
rret at Woolstone, Berks. 
_ In confirmation of the theory that ‘“low-side-windows”’ were 
used for the sanctus bell (a hand-bell used inside the Church), it 
may be mentioned that there is no such window in either of these 
garlier parts of the buildings, there was no necessity for the more 
primitive provision for the use of the sanctus. Neither is there a 
w window at Uffington, where also the necessity for it did not 
sist, there being an early central tower, where there are existing 
proofs that the sanctus bell was hung. 
Sf 
1 Wilts Arch. Maq., xxiii., p. 229. 
