16 Notes on the Churches. 
Churches by contract with a penalty on the contractor if he did not 
complete it in the given time—say twelve or eighteen months. 
One of the most rapid large works of the kind on record was the 
erection of our mother Church of Salisbury. The foundation stones 
were laid in 1220, and although within five years Bishop Richard 
Poore saw the building sufficiently advanced to admit of service 
being celebrated in the Lady Chapel, yet it was left to three of his 
successors to continue the work, which was not ready for consecration 
until 1258, nor quite completed until 1266 (the tower and spire 
being added some sixty years after this). Thus the Cathedral took 
forty-six years to build in spite of the enormous efforts which were 
made to push on the work and so to remove the disadvantages of 
the Cathedral being, as it was at Old Sarum, within the precincts 
of the King’s castle. 
We know, too, that the Charch at Edington was built in nine 
years, but there also the object was a special one—the formation of 
a new monastery—and the work was undertaken by a Bishop holding 
the high civil office of Lord High Chancellor of England. 
To return to Bishop’s Lavington, We may well believe that in the 
building of a village Church like this, where perhaps there was 
much more difficulty in raising the money, the proceedings were 
much slower, and the style changed during the progress of the 
work. This will explain the difference in style in different parts of 
this Church. Thus, the earliest work we have here is the north 
arcade of the nave: this has vigorously-carved capitals of a distinctly 
Norman type—there being two patterns of carving on each cap— 
and was probably erected soon after the middle of the twelfth 
century; then, turning to the south arcade, although at first sight 
its capitals would almost appear to be part of a later Church, I am 
of opinion that this was erected in continuation of that on the north 
side, and was completed before the end of the twelfth century. 
These arcades are an interesting study, both have cylindrical columns 
and arches in two square orders, with labels of a very similar type: 
the capitals on the north side have the angles notched out so that 
the abacus follows the line of the arch, and the arches themselves 
are only slightly pointed—while the capitals on the south side have 
