20 Notes on the Churches visited in 1892, 



and never had figures in them, but the central one has a projecting' 

 canopy and a cresting is carried along over the whole. There was 

 evidently a rood screen with the loft eastward of the eastern arch ; 

 access to the loft was gained by a door from the turret staircase^ 

 and the corbel which supported it still remains in the south wall of 

 the chancel : there are also marks of the beams in the jambs of the 

 arch, and the mouldings stop at the point where the covOj or floor 

 of the loft, would begin. There is an arched opening for the sanctus 

 bell on the north side near the top, in such a position that the 

 attendant on the floor of the Church might see the priest either at 

 the high altar or that in the Hungerford Chapel. The general 

 effect of all this work is fine and dignified, but the details are coarse 

 and exhibit a free use of those employed in the thirteenth^ fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries. The builders of this tower evidently had 

 before them the tower of Fairford, which had probably only been 

 erected a short time previous. There is a striking resemblance in 

 the inside arrangement of the lantern, the cusped panels across the 

 angles between the piers, the shallow sham niches and the coarseness 

 of the details — these parallels can hardly have been accidental. 

 The frescoes on the stonework at Fairford bespeak a somewhat earlier 

 date than this. As showing the way in which local types were 

 followed I may mention Kempsford as a third instance of the 

 internal angles of the tower being cut off to form an irregular 

 octagon on plan. 



There are the remains of two crosses in the churchyard — both of 

 fifteenth century date. The richer and more complete one was 

 formerly a market or village cross, and was removed to its present 

 position ; it has an octagonal shaft and base, with quafrefoil panels 

 on the sides of the latter. The head is an oblong on plan — each of 

 the sides has a double canopied niche, and each end a single one — all 

 the figures are missing. There are buttresses at the angles supported 

 by angels holding shields, the pinnacles are broken away. There 

 are only the plain base and part of the stem of the original church- 

 yard cross left, near the north entrance to the Church. 



