214 Steeple Ashton, Scmington, and Whaddon Churches. 



dimensions than the one on the south, and of one storey only ; it, 

 too, has a plain gable and embattled parapets at sides, but the 

 buttresses are square. The stone vaulting which once existed has 

 been lost ; only the wall ribs and corbels remain. The pinnacles 

 on this porch are of later date than the rest of the building, and 

 are of poor workmanship. Possibly the original pinnacles and 

 the stone vaulting were destroyed by the fall of the steeple. 



The chancel was not re-built with the body of the Church, and 

 so far as can be ascertained it was not interfered with beyond, the 

 insertion of the arches between it and the chapels, and of a four- 

 light window in the east wall. An old print shows the chancel as 

 it existed up to 1853, projecting about 8ft. eastward beyond the 

 chapels, and having a two-light south window — apparently 14th 

 century work ; it was a much lower building than the present, and 

 quite disproportionate to the nave, the eaves coming just above 

 the arches of the chapel. The line of its roof can still be traced 

 on the wall over the chancel arch. 



In 1853 the old chancel was pulled down and the present one 

 erected from the designs of Messrs. Giles and Gane, with the object 

 of making it harmonise better with the rest of the Church, and 

 certainly the proportion of the whole is much improved, although 

 one regrets the total disappearance of every vestige of the old work. 

 The new chancel, which is about 4ft. longer than the old one, is 

 built of wrought stone and has a stone vaulted ceiling, parapets, 

 and pinnacles, carrying on the general idea of the 1480 builders. 



The Lady Chapel has since been filled by a large and costly 

 organ, which was given in remembrance of Richard Penruddocke 

 Long by the widow and children ; it completely shuts out from view 

 the most interesting part of the Church. 



The existing Font was presented to the Church in 1841 by the 



sons and daughters of the late Mary Crawley, and nothing seems to 



be known of the old one. In his Natural History of Wilts (p. 17) 



Aubrey, referring to the disaster of 1670, quotes the private notes 



of Dr. Edward Davenant, of Gillingham, Dorset, " the stones fell 



in and broke part of the Church but never hurt the Font."^ 



' The mention of stones here strengthens the belief tliat the spire was of 

 stone. 



