The Parish Church of S. Michael, Mere. 21 
1220, he caused to be made an inventory of the belongings of the 
Church at Mere.’ 
The inventory, after describing the Church and three chapels in 
the parish, proceeds to give very valuable information of Mere 
Church. It states that :—? 
“the Church is consecrated, the chancel uncovered ; the cemetery now first closed 
against beasts. There is a tower with four bells.” 
This shows that there was a very complete Church, having three 
altars, a tower, and bells, at this early period, and that the chancel 
was, from some reason, without a roof. The date—1220—would 
exactly correspond with the characteristics of the earliest part of 
the chancel. On the south side, eastward of the chapel, can be seen 
the corbel-table which came under the eaves of the chancel of this 
time, and there can be no doubt that the lower part of the east wall 
of the chancel, including the string under the east window, the 
three buttresses on east and south, and the north wall, are also 
parts of the building which Dean- Wanda found in process of con- 
struction, the roof not yet: being on,-in 1220. But it was the usual 
order in the erection of a new Church to build the chancel first, 
and it is hardly probable that-there would “have been a nave with 
three altars, tower, and bells, without a chancel : moreover, in the 
east wall of the chancel can be seen stones bearing distinct traces 
of fire; these are used indiscriminately, and were not burnt zm sitw. 
The chancel was, therefore, built with the materials of a building 
which had probably been destroyed by fire. 
Until the discoveries made during some works of repair inside 
the Church in 1895 there was no idea of there being earlier work 
than the parts referred to above, and certainly the present tower 
had all the appearance of having been built from the ground in the 
fifteenth century, but on removing the modern plaster at the west 
end of the nave we found that the present archway opening into 
1 By the kind assistance of Mr. A. R. Malden I am enabled to give a literal 
extract from the original document in the Dean’s register at Salisbury, which 
proves that those formerly published are inaccurate in some particulars. (See 
Appendix C.) 
* See Appendix H. 
