16 



'gaits m tljf CljttM|ts ihlttis in i892. 



By C. E. PoNTiNG, F.S.A. 

 S. Sampson's. Ceickladb. 



^i*gHIS Church is in many respects a very remarkable one— it 



ligi is striking in its proportions and it has features and types 



of work which are not commonly found. 



There was probably a Church here at a very early period if we 



may— as I think we are fully justified in doing— take the two stones 



now over the inner doorway of the north porch, dating perhaps from 



the tenth century, as evidence of it.^ 



There is, however, no part of this early Church m sihc. The 

 present building is cruciform, and consists of a nave with north 



and south aisles of three wide bays, north porch, central tower with 

 north and south transepts, and chancel with a chapel on the south. 

 The eastern part of the nave arcades (two bays on the north and 

 one on the south) is the earliest work, and may be put down at 

 circa 1180; in this the Transitional marks are very pronounced. 

 The arches are pointed and have the unusual number of tkree orders 

 of chamfers, the two outer chamfers are carried down the responds, 

 the inner one springs from half-round engaged shafts with foliated 

 capitals and square abaci (the latter carried round the responds), 

 whilst the base mouldings show a decidedly late tendency. The 

 west bay of the north arcade has the Early English feeling further 

 developed, there is the same early type of label as before, but the 

 carved terminals are not earlier, than 1220, and the mouldings of the 

 capitals support this conclusion. In the two western bays of 

 the south arcade the style is fully developed, the clustered shafts 

 and the mouldings of the labels and capitals indicate their date as 



1 On the visit of the Society to the Church I gave a description of these 

 stones, but as they are to be dealt with more fully in the current number of the 

 Magazine by Mr. Eomilly Allen, I need say nothing on the point— C.E.P. 



