10 PARISH AND CHURCH Of PIDDLETRENTHIDE. 



A rood-loft formed part of the design at the time of the build- 

 ing of the south aisle, the staircase in the thickness of the east 

 wall being an integral part of this work. Its noticeable feature 

 is a window, four feet above floor-level, opening into the aisle, 

 which cannot have served any purpose of a squint. In erecting 

 the screen, mortices were cut into the chancel step, and the 

 Norman capitals of the piers were slightly mutilated. Mortices 

 are also observable in the chancel arch, where it received the 

 ends of the beam carrying the rood. 



The font is of the i3th Century, and consists of a roughly- 

 worked octagonal bowl of Forest marble upon a cylindrical stem. 

 The base (of Ham Hill stone) is of the Perpendicular period. 

 This font is remarkable for the exceedingly shallow excavation of 

 its bowl, which is only some four or five inches deep. The whole 

 building was restored in the middle of the last century in a 

 manner which demands some thankfulness, the general design 

 of the fabric having been closely studied and very little new work 

 chiefly repairs to window-tracery inserted. The painted glass 

 includes a window by Wailes, two admirable ones in Clayton and 

 Bell's later style, and a satisfactory west window in the tower from 

 Munich. 



The old Laudian Holy Table was removed from the chancel, 

 and for many years lost sight of. During the incumbency of the 

 Rev. R. W. H. Dalison (1894-8), it was discovered in a public- 

 house in the village, but it now occupies a suitable place in the 

 South Chapel, restored to its sacred use. I may add that some 

 of our young men are at work at a reredos of carved wood to 

 stand behind it. 



The register was commenced in 1654, when "Upon thee 

 Prayr 5 of y e Pishoners of Puddle Trenthead " Edward Collier was 

 appointed " to be the pish Register." 



Upon the suppression of Hyde Abbey by Henry VIII. the 

 manor became part of the spoils of Winchester College, and 

 during the troublous times that followed, the Collier monuments, 

 many of which must have been found in the church, were 

 entirely swept away. The family held the manor during part 



