ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



BRIXWORTH 



its area disclosed the inner face of the foundations of the 

 original apse and its plan was determined.' In the 

 restoration of 1864-6 the present polygonal apse was 

 built on the lines suggested by the old masonry that 

 remained. It is semicircular within but consists ex- 

 ternally of seven sides of a dodecagon^ elongated 

 from east to west, the angles of which are covered by 

 pilaster buttresses^ whose outer faces follow the plan 

 of the contiguous bays, while their heads in the original 

 apse were united by a continuous surface arcade, the 

 springing of which can be traced at the north-west 

 comer.* One original round-headed window' has sur- 

 vived in the north-west bay, together with one buttress 

 and part of another. There is reason to believe* that the 

 apse was rebuilt, probably in the loth century, upon 

 the site or foundations of an original 7th<entury apse, the 

 plan of which (polygonal without and circular within) 

 it preserved,' and that the sunken ambulatory which 

 encircles its east end and is now open to the sky formed 

 part of the earlier building. The wall forming the outer 

 circumference of the ambulatory, with the two wide 

 recesses which it contains, has been rebuilt, but the 

 inner wall is old, except for a portion beneath the east 

 end of the apse, and retains much of its original 

 plaster. An off-set of bricks, of which some courses 

 remain on the north side, supported the springing of 

 a barrel-vault, and this is reproduced in the modern 

 work. Upon this semicircular base the polygonal apse 

 was built. No bricks occur in the masonry above the 

 substructure, but a species of tufa, which is not found 

 in the nave or presbytery, is freely used, and as this 

 occurs also in the middle part of the tower it has been 

 inferred that these two works are contemporary.* 

 Evidence that the polygonal apse was a rebuilding 

 is also afforded by the fact that its northern wall en- 

 croaches on the east wall of the presbytery in such a 

 way that the window in that wall only just escapes being 

 blocked.' 



The position of the windows in the east wall of the 

 presbytery indicates that the ambulatory ' " was originally 

 external to an apse the upper part of which was semi- 

 circular both within and without." The ambulatory 

 was covered by a barrel vault which, as already stated, 

 sprang from an offset or string-course of bricks at a 

 height of about 6 ft. 6 in. above the floor, and was 

 probably protected by a lean-to roof, the eaves of which 

 must have been close to the ground. No traces of a 

 crypt below the apse, such as the ambulatory would 



lead one to expect, can be found. The soil beneath the 

 apse is said to be undisturbed and mainly solid iron- 

 stone rock. When the upper part of the inner face of 

 the old ambulatory wall was uncovered at the restora- 

 tion it bore no traces of plaster,'^ while the plaster on 

 the outer face is original and conceals no openings to 

 any inner chamber. There was an opening in the east 

 part of the wall, which has now been rebuilt, but it 

 is believed that this was made for a burial at a much 

 later date.'^ The use of the ambulatory must to some 

 extent remain conjectural. The two doorways from 

 the presbytery, however, imply that it was intended 

 for visitors to a shrine, who would enter in the usual 

 way by one door and leave by the other, and the re- 

 cesses'* on the north-east and south-east sides of the 

 passage may have contained tombs or relics. 



The west tower, together with the west wall of the 

 nave, remains to be described. The tower is built at 

 right angles to the west wall, set obliquely to the nave, 

 and measures externally 21 ft. 6 in. from north to 

 south. It is of three stages below the later bell-chamber, 

 undivided by strings, each stage communicating by a 

 doorway with the rounded staircase turret on its west 

 face. The lowest stage originally formed the porch 

 of the yth-century church, from which it is entered 

 by a wide" archway with semicircular head of Roman 

 brick: the porch had a lofty western entrance and an 

 upper chamber with a gabled roof, and was flanked 

 on each side, as already stated, by a small building'* 

 with an upper room, the use of which is conjectural. 

 These lateral chambers were entered by lesser door- 

 ways in the north and south walls, that on the south 

 side" now forming the outer entrance to the tower, but 

 there was no communication between the upper rooms'* 

 and the chamber over the porch, and nothing survives 

 to indicate how they were approached. The porch 

 chamber was entered from the interior of the church 

 by a round-headed doorway," now blocked, set ver- 

 tically above the taller ground-floor archway and ap- 

 proached by a wooden stair or landing. The chamber 

 had a window in the west wall and another on the 

 south, the latter placed high in the wall so as to dear 

 the roof of the flanking building. In the 10th-century 

 reconstruction a tower was raised upon this western 

 porch, the line of whose gabled roof is still visible in 

 the original plaster-work in the west wall, and there 

 are other slighter indications of it in the east wall. In 

 the work of heightening the walls of the porch tufa 



' ytiioc. Arch. Soc. Rpii. xx, 350. The 

 excavation was made to a depth of 6 ft. 

 4 in. below the then existing chancel Boor 

 level. The early wall of the apse reached 

 from the bottom of this to a height of 

 4 ft. 9 in. 



' Or of five sides in addition to the 

 two parallel sides in the western portion. 



^ They are 20 in. wide, about 6 in. in 

 projection in the upper part and about 

 1 6 in. below. 



♦ Arch. your. Ixix, 507. 



' The window is 3 ft. 8 in. wide, but 

 no bricks are used in its head. The original 

 wall here remains to the height of 5 ft. 

 above the spring of the window arch, 

 which is 16 ft. 4 in. above the apse floor: 

 Alice. Arch. Soc. Rpti. xx, 350. It was 

 assumed that there had been a similar 

 window in the corresponding south bay 

 and in the east wall. 



' Arch. Jour. Ixix, 510. 



' This plan is typical of the 6th-century 

 churches of Ravenna, and excavations at 



Reculvcr show that it was copied in Eng- 

 land. The 10th-century apses at Deer- 

 hurst and Wing (Bucks.) are polygonal 

 both within and without, and belong to a 

 different tradition : note by Mr. A. W. 

 Clapham. 



' Arch. Jour. Ixix, 510. Tufa is found 

 in the tower in connexion with herring- 

 bone coursing and, as this is generally in- 

 dicative of an early Norman date, Prof. 

 Mamilton Thompson places the rebuilding 

 of the apse in the latter part of the i ith 

 century, 'possibly soon after the Norman 

 Conquest". But Mr. Beeby Thompson 

 has pointed out that as the tufa is from the 

 glacial gravel beds of the neighbourhood it 

 might be used for repairs or building at any 

 time. 



' Ibid. 507. The wall covers its south 

 jamb. The new south wall also encroaches 

 on the corresponding window. 



'" The ambulatory is 7 ft. 6 in. wide at 

 the bottom, but the sides of the polygonal 

 upper part of the apse overhang the semi- 



circular lower part below the former vault 

 by an average of 13 in. : Asjoc. Arch. Soc. 

 Rpii. IX, 352. 



" Arch. Jour. Ixix, 508. 



'» Alloc. Arch. Soc. Rpti. xx, 351. 



" Ibid. 



" The recesses are 6 ft. 4 in. and 6 ft. 

 9 in, wide respectively and about 19 in. 

 deep. They are about 12 in. above the 

 floor, but tiieir original height cannot now 

 be stated ; Alloc. Arch. Su. Rpii. xx, 351. 



'5 The width is 4 ft. 10 in. 



" Foundations have also been found of 

 a building, probably an outer porch, at 

 right angles to the west wall. 



" The other is blocked. 



" The holes for the floor joists, now 

 filled, can still be distinguished in the 

 outer walls. 



" The floor level of the porch chamber, 

 as indicated by off-sets in the walls below 

 the existing floor, was lower than at 

 present. 



'5S 



