230 The Churches of Purton and Wanborough. 
evidently removed and reinstated when the present tower was built. 
Early thirteenth century. The nave appears to have been re-built 
at this period, but of this work only the cylindrical piers of the 
two arcades, with their caps and bases, remain, and the bases are 
missing on the eastern responds against the central tower. Although - 
the north and south piers are evidently coeval, the capitals of the 
former are richly carved with conventional foliage characteristic of 
the style, whilst those of the latter are only moulded. These piers 
were apparently increased in height nearly two centuries later, as 
will be presently noticed. 
- A little later followed the erection of the present chancel, the 
walls of which (with the exception of the east wall, which was 
rebuilt during the restoration of the Church by Mv. Butterfield, in 
1872) are all of this date, though there have been many later 
insertions. An original lancet window remains in the north wall 
near the central tower, but it is built up and must have been in 
disuse since the fifteenth century when the sacristy was erected 
against the outside of it: the doorway made at this later period for 
communication between chancel and sacristy, cuts into this window : 
this is now also built up. In the south wall of the chancel, but 
further eastward, are portions of a similar window cut into by the 
archway opening into the chapel erected at a later period. In the 
south wall of the sacrarium the original Early English piscina 
exists: it is of large size and has two shelves. 
There is an interesting thirteenth century niche, with foliated 
corbel and rich deeply-cut mouldings, built into the later gable of 
the south transept: this is shown in the sketch view, Plate I. 
Fourteenth century. At about the middle of this century the 
chapel on the south side of the chancel appears to have been added, 
and the archway referred to above cut through the wall of the 
latter. The three-light east window here is a beautiful specimen of 
“Flowing Decorated.” The window and doorway in the south 
wall are evidently later insertions, coeval with the aisles. A 
“ Decorated” piscina with shelf, in the south wall, shows this to 
have been a chantry. 
The central tower and spire, and the north and south transepts 
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