ALTON HUNDRED 



ALTON 



The old central tower still retains its four arches, 

 each of two orders with a heavy roll, with rudely 

 ornamented capitals, in which may be seen linger- 

 ing traces of the classical volute. Over each arch 

 is a round-headed opening that formerly led into 

 the roofs. In the angles of the tower are the 

 massive oak timbers that support the bell-frame 

 above. The tower is separated from the arcade 

 on the north by a narrow interval, and has arched 

 openings pierced through both the walls now con- 

 necting it with the later arcade. The original nave 

 piers were oblong in plan with a simple band of 



ARCHES OF THE OLD CENTRAL TOWER. 



ornament by way of impost. Traces of them are 

 visible in the present south wall. 



Of the thirteenth century chancel, the lower 

 parts of the east and south walls remain. The 

 latter has within a trefoiled arch a drain with two 

 bowls and groove for a shelf, and to the west of 

 it a small square locker. There is a tall niche 

 with trefoiled head on the south side of the east 

 window, and a narrower one of like pattern on 

 the north side. These belong to the widening of 

 the chancel northwards in the fourteenth century. 

 In the east wall of the tower and the north jamb 

 of the east window of the south chancel are two 

 stones, each carved with a crosier grasped by a hand 

 in the middle. They are on the line of the north 

 wall of the first chancel and possibly refer to the 

 rectorial liabilities of Hyde Abbey, which were not 



138 Godwin's Civil War in Hampshire, 



altered when the parishioners afterwards enlarged 

 the chancel. 



The arcade dividing the two chancels and naves 

 is of seven bays with octagonal pillars of good 

 design, but the third and fourth are practically 

 oblong piers to enable them to range with the 

 tower, with which they are connected by the 

 before-mentioned spur walls. 



The windows in the north and south walls of the 

 two naves are alike in pattern, of three lights with de- 

 pressed heads, but the chancel windows are of some- 

 what earlier character with more massive tracery, 

 and the east windows are of the same 

 date. The west window of the north 

 nave is modern. The south nave has 

 a fifteenth century west doorway, now 

 walled up, and another, four-centred, 

 on the south. There are some re- 

 mains of an arched recess under the 

 second window from the west. In- 

 side the south door, which is covered 

 by a contemporary porch, there is, on 

 the west, a large niche for the holy- 

 water stock. The south door itself 

 is original and of massive oak, riddled 

 and splintered by the bullets of the 

 Parliamentary soldiers who attacked 

 the Royalist soldiers taking refuge in 

 the church in i643. 136 



The roofs throughout are of low 

 pitch, covered externally by a larger 

 and modern roof of one span. They 

 are for the most part of the fifteenth 

 century with tie beams. There is 

 part of an old screen in the first bay 

 of the arcade, and the doorway on to 

 the roodloft in the southern nave re- 

 mains above the opening in the 

 north-east angle. In the north quire 

 are fourteen stalls, seven of which are 

 old, with simple misericords. There 

 is also a desk with good tracery. All 

 are of the fifteenth century. All the 

 seats in the church, together with 

 the western gallery and the font, 

 which stands under the tower, are 

 modern, dating from 1867, when the church 

 underwent restoration. The pulpit is a very fine 

 and rich example of late Jacobean work with 

 detached pillars at the angles, and near the altar 

 is an old ' poor man's box ' with a wooden table 

 above inscribed with the text from Tobit iv. 7. 

 In the tower hangs a good brass chandelier of 

 many branches, the gift of Thomas Baverstock, 

 gentleman, in 1780. The elaborate oak reredos 

 and the organ are both of recent date. 



Until the restoration of 1867, ' large galleries 

 extended round the church, and one crossed the 

 aisle in front of the communion table, with its 

 back to the east window. One gallery was entered 

 from the belfry. Between each pew door in the 

 north aisle was a small seat for the use of the 

 inmates of the workhouse.' 137 



1OO-I. 



137 Curtis's Hist, of Alton, 56, 57, 

 II 



which contains many details of interest taken from 

 as to work on the church in the counts, 

 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 



481 



the churchwardens' ac- 



6l 



