28 The Parish Church of S. Michael, Mere. 
This chapel has been very unfortunate in the matter of its roof, 
for the present is at least the fourth which has been put on. There 
was certainly one of Bettesthorne’s work (not to go back farther), 
which was of the pitch of the existing roof; then, towards the end 
of the sixteenth century a roof of lower pitch was substituted, the 
gable being reduced to the level of the side parapet, which was 
continued round. Aubrey refers to this roof as having some “ good 
carved worke,” and it existed in Hoare’s time, as the engraving of 
the exterior of the Church shows,! and the two stone corbels (of the 
basest type of grotesque) and oak wall pieces which formed part of it 
still remain. The third roof was a very mean and weak one, of flat 
pitch and slated, put on some sixty yearsago. The present roof 
was put on in 1892, from money left for the purpose by Miss Julia 
E. Chafyn-Grove, who had previously (in 1883) restored the altar 
to the chapel and opened it for daily service.” 
Very soon after the erection of this chapel an enlargement of 
the body of the Church seems to have been necessary, and the pro- 
jection of the south chapel naturally suggested the widening of the 
south aisle to the extent of 5ft. 7in., to bring it in line with the 
chapel. ‘The south porch, with its priests’ chamber over, and 
staircase for access to the same and on to the roof, was erected at 
the same time—not later than 1370. It will be seen that the 
plinth of the chapel is continued in the aisle, although the windows 
and parapets differ. 
In the aisle are four (three in the south wall and one in the west) 
three-light pointed windows with tracery of reticulated type and 
chisel-pointed cusps, the outside labels here and in the outer south 
doorway, as in the chapel, being worked on the arch-stones. 
The mullions and tracery are plainly splayed—not moulded—as 
1 Hundred of Mere, p. 10. 
2“The lands belonging to this chantry were obtained at the Dissolution by 
the Protector Somerset for his Secretary, Sir John Thynne, by whom they were 
sold to Thomas Chafyn, of Zeals, and by his representatives, the Groves, of Zeals, 
the chapel is now used for burial.” (Foot-note to Jackson’s Aubrey, p. 387.) 
Hoare (Hund. of Mere, p. 12,) gives the date of sale as 11th November, 1563. 
a ae 
