38 The Parish Church of S. Michael, Mere. 
The tower is a magnificent one in proportion and dimensions, 
and a fine piece of masonry, but it is plainly treated with the 
exception of the parapet. It strikingly resembles, in type, that of 
S. Peter’s, Marlborough, but it is bolder in detail and conceived on 
a larger scale. It is 94}{t. in height from the ground to the top 
of the parapet (the pinnacles rise about 294ft. above this), and about 
23ft. square on plan exclusive of the buttresses. It is of three 
stages in height, divided by string-courses. At each angle is an 
octagonal buttress (that on the north-west contains the staircase for 
the full height) about 7}{t. in diameter at the lower stage, carried 
up for the full height and terminating in a spirelet springing from 
a simple moulded and embattled cornice. There is a chamfered 
plinth, and above this a base mould. The cornice beneath the 
parapet is a repetition of the string-courses. The parapet is an 
embattled one enriched by two stages of sunk tracery in quatrefoils 
with shields, this work being very similar to that on the tomb 
between the chancel and south chapel. There is a three-light 
window in each face of the upper stage. The middle stage is 
divided into two on the west face with a two-light window in each 
part. In the lower stage there is a low four-centred doorway 
without label in the west face, and above it a four-light window of 
transitional type with a vesica in a curious position in the tracery. 
The label has square terminals. @ver the window is carved an 
angel holding a shield with the device I.H.S. 
There is distinct evidence of the tower having been built after 
the west wall of the north aisle, and the latter made out to insert 
the buttress. The outside stonework of the tower is Chilmark, as 
are the buttresses where they occur inside the Church. The archway 
into the nave is a fine specimen of the panelled type like the chancel 
arch, 11ft. 2in. wide; the jambs are 3ft. 10in. thick, and the 
sinkings are bold and deep. 
being the house now known as ‘‘the old vicarage,” or “ Layfield House,” due 
west of the tower across the road. In some manner it found its way, about the 
beginning of the century, to the house known as “ Dean’s Orchard,” to the south 
of the churchyard, and was there used for domestic purposes by successive tenants 
till it was discovered in 1895 in the corner of a dark coal cellar and re-hung in 
the bell-cot. 
