1. BRADFORD-ON-AVON AND BATH MEETING. 



original building consisted of a chancel, about two-thirds of the 

 length of the present one, nave, and tower. In the i4th century 

 the chancel was lengthened, in the i5th was added the present 

 tower, and in the i6th century two chapelries, now included in 

 the north aisle. There were two Norman windows on each side 

 of the chancel. He pointed out the Methuen monument, two 

 ancient recessed tombs, the unusually long hagioscope, the traces 

 of the rood screen, and the reredos in stone of a i5th century 

 altar in the aisle opposite the south porch, about which a theory 

 had recently been propounded that it was put up as a rest for an 

 Easter sepulchre. Such a position would be a very unusual one 

 for an Easter sepulchre, and it seems disproved by a hagioscope 

 now filled up but marked in a plan of the ancient church 

 before restoration, which hagioscope would have had no motive 

 if an altar had not been there. The height of the altar slab 

 shows that the level of the aisle, or of this portion of it, has been 

 raised at some time since the i5th century. 



The registers began in 1579. The Elizabethan silver-gilt 

 chalice, of the year 1564, was recorded as the oldest in Wiltshire. 



THE SAXON CHURCH. 



Leaving the parish church the party repaired to the Saxon 

 Church of St. Lawrence close by, probably the ecchsiola attributed 

 to St. Aldhelm by William of Malmesbury. 



Outside the building the arcading on the upper part of the 

 walls attracted attention. The arcading is characteristic of 

 Saxon and of Early Romanesque work generally. Within 



Mr. COLLISSON, addressing the Club, said that this little 

 Saxon church was the only perfect specimen of primitive 

 Romanesque style, and therefore a unique example of building 

 in the early part of the 8th century. It brought us within 

 70 years of the landing of St. Birinus, the Apostle of Wessex. 

 William of Malmesbury, in 1120, in his Gesta Pontificum, wrote : 

 "To this day there is at Bradford a little church which Aldhelm 

 is said to have founded and dedicated to the blessed St. 



