245 



^otes oil C§im|^$ in t^t ^^i£poui|oolr of 

 Wannin^tcr. 



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



BoYTON. S. Mary the Virgin. 

 ^^HIS Church has been so fully deseribed by Mr. Fane,^ and 

 its heraldry by Dr. Baron^* in addition to Sir R. C. Hoare's 

 account in his " Hundred of Heytesbury," that it seems almost 

 presumptuous for me to say anything further about it, and it is only 

 on the special request of the Rector and others that I venture to do 

 so. I am encouraged by the distance of time at which Mr. Fane 

 wrote, and the works which have since been done in the Church, to 

 hope that new light may be thrown on some of its features : and I 

 am much assisted in this by information which has been supplied to 

 me by the Rector, 



The plan of this Church is very peculiar, and although there are 

 side projections it can hardly be called cruciform, as the length and 

 the ridge of the south projection are parallel to the nave. It con- 

 sists of chancel without side adjuncts, nave with transept on the 

 north and chapel on the soath, tower on the north westwards of the 

 transept and forming the porch, and a lean-to vestry against the 

 west wall of the latter. 



The oldest part of the building as it now stands is the chancel, 

 which, although it has been much altered, is mainly the work of 

 about the middle of the thirteenth century. Of the original work 

 we have (1) the south wall with its three-bay sedilia, piscina, two 

 lancet windows and priests^ door, almost intact (the arch of the 

 latter has, however, been renewed) ; (2) the east wall with the ex- 

 ception of the window ; and (3) the three lancet windows on the 



* Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. i., p. 233. 

 I Ibid, vol XX., p. 145v 



