158 Notes on the Churches 
freestone, which would be sparingly used at this distance from the 
quarry, and I cannot bring myself to think it had any other use, 
or any connexion with an earlier building.] 
Between the upper and lower ranges of windows on the outside 
runs a bold projecting string-course, coeval in date, and the long- 
and-short Saxon quoins can be traced for the full height of the nave 
at the west end. The exterior face of the walls was plastered, and 
a piece of this plastering still remains preserved in the north aisle. 
The kind of stone used in this early work is the coarse-grained oolite 
which we saw in the nave at Blacklands, and it was doubtless 
brought from Bradford; the joints are thin, as in the Saxon Church 
there, and I see no reason why the work here may not be assigned 
to a date almost as early as that of Bradford, which is supposed to 
have been erected by 8. Aldhelm at about A.D. 705. 
In the twelfth century north and south aisles were added, but, 
instead of the usual pillars supporting the arches, there were two 
arches cut through the wall on each side, and a flat piece of wall, 
some 7ft. wide, left as a pier between them. The angle shafts of 
the responds and portions of the labels, cutting into the Saxon 
windows, still remain. The south doorway is of this date, but it 
has evidently been re-built and foreign stones used to make up: it 
is not likely that the Norman south aisle would be as wide as the 
present one. Up to five years ago the twelfth century west wall of 
the north aisle had not been touched, but it became necessary to 
re-build the upper part of it, and the charming window was then 
replaced in its former position: the rest of the walls of this aisle 
may be assigned to about 1460. The recent modern roof was a 
lean-to, but there was ample evidence of the span form which I 
have re-preduced, and the oak ceiling is an exact copy of the 
original. The piscina near the east end of the north aisle indicates 
an altar there, and the opening between it and the chancel was 
evidently constructed as an ambulatory and not a squint, for its 
general inclination is not in the direction of the high altar, and it 
is carried down to the floor. The south aisle appears to have been 
rebuilt as a lean-to (or at any rate with a lower south wall) in the 
fourteenth century, as indicated by the window near the porch, but 
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