40 The Parish Church of S. Michael, Mere. 
oe 
with four-centred head, the spandrels having undercut carving of 
exquisite design. The rail at the top of the lower panelled stage 
is sunk and carved like the transom, and the panels beneath it are 
traceried, each being treated as a flat ogee-crocketted canopy; this 
occurs on the nave side only, the east side being plain for the 
returned stalls. The lower open stage has tracery under the 
transom, and the heads of the five main bays are filled with tracery 
of a fully-developed “ Perpendicular” type. The cornices on both 
sides remain intact, and are richly moulded and carved—that on 
the nave side has two orders of inserted carving, besides a small 
member carved on the solid, and that on the east has two orders of 
carved pateree in addition to a lower “fringe.” The parapet was 
taken down in 1562, when an oak cover-mould was put on the 
cornice, but on removing this I found the mortice holes indicating 
a central panel 1ft. 7in. wide (this only being grooved into the sill 
piece of the parapet), with nine panels on each side, in groups of 
three; the mullions forming the main divisions were supported on 
corbels morticed in horizontally. The holes from which the beam 
‘forming the top of the parapet was taken were evidently /eft for 
the purpose in building the clerestory walls, and filled up round {the 
beam afterwards: they indicate the height of the parapet as 3ft. 9in. 
from the loft floor. The east parapet was divided by mullions into 
eleven equal panels of 124in., and does not appear to have touched 
the arch at each end. The width of the loft is 6ft. 7in. 
The means of access to the rood-loft (after it had been raised to 
its present height and the staircase which led to the earlier and 
lower loft blocked up) was by a wooden ladder in the north-west 
angle of the north chapel, through a doorway in the wall forming 
the east end of the aisle (this was obviously cut through after the 
insertion of the present arch), across a bridge to the east respond 
of the north arcade of the nave, and through the respond to the 
loft. Both openings in the walls are 2ft. wide, large enough to 
admit an adult (which is not often the case), and in the 2ft. din. in 
thickness of the respond, through which the upper doorway is cut 
four steps are arranged in an ingenious way, giving 1lin. tread to 
each. Both openings appear to have had doors. I have met with 
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