372 Notes on the Church of Rodbourne Cheney. 



Built into the modern walla of the tower and north aisle are 

 interesting fragments of old work which I first noticed and reported 

 upon to the Vicar and churchwardens in 1901. The piece in the 

 west wall of the aisle is a fragment 12|in. long, and Sin. wide, of 

 a band of double interlaced ornament, carved in a coarse oolite ; 

 the other, in the north wall of the tower, I reported as being the 

 upper half of the head of a cross of about 22in. diameter. It 

 measures 21x11 inches. It has since been pronounced as probably 

 being the tympanum of a doorhead, but a close study of the design 

 will show that it is only part of a pattern which was continued below 

 the present horizontal line ; it apparently had four arms, each with 

 triple foliation on each side, and at the extremity a kind of bud ; the 

 cross thus formed was contained within a double line of border. 

 This is of the same kind of stone, and both are probably of one date 

 — certainly very early Norman at the latest. Mr. Keyser (in 

 " Norman Tymimna" p. 39) refers to this as a tympanum, and 

 as representing " The Tree of Spiritual Life and Knowledge." He 

 states that it was formerly over the south doorway. This is on 

 the authority of the writer in the Gentleman's Mag. in 1833,* who 

 speaks of it as being " on the south door . . . where there 

 are three united branches in allusion to the Trinity." It would 

 seem probable that the stone had been built in over the doorway, 

 rather than formed part of it — it is too irregular to have been 

 contained within a semicircular arch, even if there were not the 

 evidence of the pattern before referred to. 



The Church as it stands is of fine and interesting proportions, 

 and the modern work is good for the period ; the architect was 

 Mr. Sage, of Swindon, 1848. 



[The illustrations are from photographs taken from casts made by Mr. A. 

 D. Passmore, of Swindon, who drew attention to these stones independently 



'"An Architectural Antiquary" writes in the Gentleman's Magazine in 

 1833, part I., p. 895, on "Sculpture as accessory to Architecture," and in 

 alluding to the superiority as works of imitation of the Norman carving of 

 leaves, over their figures, says of the " intricate mixture of leaves, tendrils, 

 and knotted bands " . . . " they are sometimes emblematical, as on the 

 south door of Rodbourne Church, in Wiltshire, where there are three united 

 branches, in allusion to the Trinity." 



