
By C. E. Ponting, F.S.A. 283 
arch of two orders, the outer enriched by the chevron and sup- 
ported by detached shafts, which have cushion caps. The label 
has the hatched ornament; the tympanum is filled with a geo- 
metrical ornament of the “maze” type. The north doorway is 
very similar, but the inner member of the arch has a kind of leaf- 
and-ball ornament, and the tympanum has a sunk diaper pattern 
cut in it; the label is returned horizontally the full width of the 
bay and stops against the buttresses. The chancel arch is of the 
same type of work—a semicircular arch with label, the inner order 
a plain broad one, and the outer order a chevron on the nave side, 
supported on shafts, the caps of which are carved to represent birds. 
The work above described can hardly be later than the first 
quarter of the 12th century, and yet it would appear that (at any 
rate as regards the buttresses) so far from its representing the first 
Church erected here, it is only the re-modelling of a still older 
structure, the walls of which remain on the inside, and that the 
buttresses and the outer facing of the walls are only a casing. This 
is certainly so on the south side, for, on removing some loose in- 
ternal plastering opposite the buttress westward of the doorway, 
the inner part of the arch and the east jamb of a window were 
discovered, the outer parts having been removed and the window 
blocked in the erection of the 12th century buttress. The inside 
opening of the window must have been about 2 feet 7 inches wide, 
it has a semicircular arch with voussoirs 7} inches deep, each with 
the same mason’s mark, thus # roughly cut; the stones have an 
axed worked surface; both jambs and arch hada deep splay. The 
west jamb of the window was removed to insert the adjacent 
window in the 15th century, and this precludes the entire opening 
out of it. It has none of the usual characteristics of pre-Norman 
work: and I conclude that a very early Norman wall having 
shown signs of leaning outwards, it was thickened out at the 
period referred to, the fenestration altered, and the buttress 
erected with the object of strengthening it." 
1That the foundations were always bad is a fact which accounts for the 
continued displacement of the wall which had very nearly resulted in its 
collapse, when the work of underpinning was recently undertaken. 
