m 



^otes on ^Ibtourne €\viXtl^. 



By E. DoBi.N Webb, F.S.A. 



rHE Parish Chm-ch of Aldbourne, which, according to the 

 King's Book, is dedicated to St. Michael, also lays claim 

 to S. Mary Magdalene as its patron saint. On a curious view of the 

 south side of the Church, by Gr Bacon, in the possession of W- 

 Brown, Esq. (which, judging from the costume of the figures in the 

 foreground of the picture, was executed in the middle of the last 

 century), is this inscription : — 



" The south prospect of S. Mary Magdalene, in ye Parish of Auborne in 

 North Wiltshire, whose length is 160 feet and the height of ye tower 99 feet. 

 Inscribed to Mr. Thomas Bacon of ye strand London." 



AldboiuTie Feast is held on the Monday next to the feast of S. 

 Mary Magdalene (July 22nd), and so closely in the middle ages 

 was such an event as this bound up with the Church life of each 

 town or village, that it seems almost a certainty to me that S. Mary 

 Magdalene was the patron saint of the twelfth century Church, but 

 that when the great work of building the western tower and re- 

 modelling the whole building took place in the fifteenth century, 

 the Church was hallowed afresh, receiving as its patron saint S. 

 Michael. Aldbom-ne Church as we now see it bears but Httle re- 

 semblance to its twelfth century predecessor, which probably was of 

 the usual type and consisted of a nave, north and south aisles of no 

 great width, a low central tower, shallow transepts having apsidal 

 chapels, and an apsidal chancel. As was usually the case the first 

 alterations in the old plan wei-e made at the east end, the apse 

 giving place to the present square-ended chancel in the thirteenth 

 centmy ; later on the two side chapels were built ; and last of all, 

 in the fifteenth century, the low central tower was taken down and 

 the present Perpendicular piers with arches opening into the 

 transepts, and the magnificent western tower — whose pierced stone 



