38 Notes oil the Churches- visited in 189liJ. 



the mouldings^ in bases, arches, and windows, of the later.^ This 

 tower is of fine proportions and is of three stages — in the lower is 

 a doorway on the west having the outer order of the arch moulded 

 and carried on attached shafts ; also a beautiful and grand archway 

 in the east wall which formerly opened into the nave, but has been 

 blocked up apparently ever since the sixteenth century, probably to 

 arrest the settlement of the side walls ; this archway is richly 

 moulded and has a moulded label on the tower side with carved 

 terminals. The middle stage has a single-light window in the south 

 wall, and the upper stage has single lights on south and west sides 

 and double-light windows on the north and east — the arch of the 

 latter having been removed. On the inside of the west wall is a 

 singular -looking groove extending the whole height of the belfry 

 stage and dying out at the top ; it has the appearance of having 

 been occupied by a wooden support for the early roof erected on the 

 top of the middle stage and the upper stage being built around it. 



It is remarkable that there is no structural staircase to the tower, 

 and that many stones with earlier working on them are built up in 

 the walls, including four twelfth century coffin slabs in the east 

 buttress on the south side, parts of two on the adjoining buttress 

 on the east face, two others forming the lintel of the south window 

 of the middle stage, and another built into the east jamb of the 

 upper window on the south side. The original cornice remains, 

 with outlets for water about 4ft. apart, but the parapet was probably 

 removed when the spire was added. 



The north chapel was prepared for when the nave was built, if 

 not actually erected at the same time, for the archway giving access 

 to it is of the same early type as the south doorway — it is of two 

 orders of chamfers, the inner carried on corbel shafts with caps 

 (without abacus) of a distinctly Transitional type. 



The east window of this chapel is a charming feature, consisting 

 of a small triple lancet with richly-moulded inner arches supported 



^ Canon Jackson states that the porch was built by William de Colerne, Abbot 

 of Malmesbury, about 1280. He puts the inner door at circa 1100, and in this 

 he was doubtless misled by the chevron member without considering the later 

 mouldiusrs with which it is associated. 



