EAST MEON HUNDRED 



EAST MEON 



much contemporary detail. It seems to have been 

 begun about 1 1 30-40, and shows no evidence of 

 any earlier work on the site, unless the excess of 

 width of the nave over the chancel and transepts, 

 unusual in a cruciform building, points to the former 

 existence of a nave and chancel church, which was 

 enlarged at the date above given by building a tower 

 on the site of the chancel and adding transepts and 

 a chancel on the north, south, and east. Even if 

 this be so, the plan only of the former nave can be 

 said to survive, as there seems no difference between 

 the masonry here and in the other twelfth-century 

 parts of the building. 



The details are exceptionally good, both in design 

 and workmanship ; the walls are of a uniform thick- 

 ness of 4 ft., built in flint rubble with ashlar dressings, 

 while the central tower is ashlar-faced. The stone is 

 of admirable quality, and has preserved its original 

 surface to a remarkable degree, the upper stage of the 

 tower showing hardly a trace of decay. The work 

 was probably carried on slowly, after the usual 

 fashion, and the details of the west doorway of the 

 nave are more advanced than those of the tower, sug- 

 gesting a date of 1 1 50-60. The south chapel seems 

 to have been added at much the same time as the south 

 aisle, and their details point to the beginning of the 

 thirteenth century, though the windows of the south 

 aisle are of somewhat later date. There are notice- 

 able irregularities in the setting out of the east walls 

 of the chancel and south chapel, and the north wall of 

 the chancel seems to have been rebuilt at a different 

 angle, the base of an older wall with a more northerly 

 inclination showing on the outside, and ending 

 3 ft. 6 in. from the north-east angle of the present 

 chancel. Modern alterations have made it difficult 

 to assign a date to this work, but the arms of Prior 

 Hinton and the monastery of St. Swithun of Winches- 

 ter, on the east wall of the chancel, point to the fact 

 of a repair or rebuilding of this part of the church 

 between 1470 and 1498. The chancel has a modern 

 east window of five lights with geometrical tracery, 

 and there are no openings in the north wall. In the 

 remains of the former north wall may be seen the 

 lower stones of what are probably the jambs of a 

 doorway. On the south side of the chancel is an 

 arcade of two bays, with circular central column and 

 half-round responds, and circular moulded bases and 

 capitals. The arches are pointed, of two moulded 

 orders with labels, all the detail being very good. 

 The south or Lady chapel has an east window of late 

 fifteenth-century style, of four lights, and a south 

 window of three lights of similar character but rather 

 better design, and to the west of the latter a south 

 doorway with modern stonework. These windows 

 are probably part of the work done by Prior Hinton, 

 and at the south-east is a modern piscina with a shelf. 

 Part of a thirteenth-century piscina, with a projecting 

 moulded bowl, has lately been found, and may have 

 belonged to this chapel. 



The transepts were originally lighted by single 

 round-headed windows, one in the east wall and 

 one in the west, and probably a third of the same 

 kind in the gable walls. The east and west windows 

 in the south transept survive, having escaped alteration 

 because they are covered by the roofs of the south 

 chapel and aisle, but the south window in the south 

 transept and all three windows in the north transept 

 have given place to later two-light insertions. The 



north window of the north transept is of two trefoiled 

 lights with a quatrefoil in the head, and dates from 

 the second quarter of the fourteenth century, as does 

 the rear arch of the east window. The tracery of 

 this window is modern, as is all the stonework of the 

 west window, below which a doorway has just been 

 inserted (1906). In the course of this work a care- 

 fully-plastered cavity was found in the wall containing 

 a human bone, apparently placed there at the time 

 of the building of the transept, and probably a relic. 

 There was nothing to show that its position had been 

 marked on the wall-face. 



The south window of the south transept, c. 1320, 

 has two trefoiled lights with tracery under a triangular 

 head, with a moulded rear arch and label. Above it, 

 in the gable, are three modern lancet windows. In 

 the east wall of this transept, adjoining the south-east 

 pier of the tower, is an early thirteenth-century 

 pointed arch of two chamfered orders, with square- 

 edged chamfered strings at the springing, opening to 

 the south chapel, and contemporary with it, while 

 further to the south is a fourteenth-century opening 

 cut straight through the wall, 6 ft. 8 in. wide, with 

 an arched head, the wall being solid from the spring- 

 ing of the arch downwards. It marks the site of the 

 altar in the transept. 



The central tower is of three stages, the ground 

 stage open on all four sides, with slightly stilted 

 round-headed arches, each of three slightly recessed 

 square orders, with a deep string at the springing. 

 The jambs of the north and south arches are simply 

 recessed, the member which takes the inner order of 

 the arches being corbelled off a little below the 

 springing, while the east and west arches are em- 

 phasized by half-round shafts to the inner order and 

 nook-shafts to the outer, with scalloped capitals and 

 moulded bases. The walls are ashlar-faced below the 

 string and plastered above, with wrought quoins to 

 the internal angles, up to the under side of the roofs. 



The second stage of the tower has plain round- 

 headed openings on all four faces, and is reached by a 

 wooden stair from the north-west angle of the south 

 chapel, which leads to an opening in the east wall of 

 the south transept, and thence by a landing to a 

 narrow fifteenth-century doorway in the south-east of 

 the tower. 



Above the roofs the tower is faced with ashlar of 

 excellent quality, and has bowtels at the angles. 

 The third stage has a group of three windows in each 

 face with round-headed arches of two orders, the 

 outer plain and the inner with zigzag ornament. 

 All have labels with billet ornament and jamb-shafts 

 with scalloped capitals, and at their base a string with 

 billet ornament runs round the tower. Above them 

 is a second string with zigzag, and over that three 

 circular openings on each face, with borders of 

 zigzag, close to the eaves of the spire, which is a 

 leaded octagonal broach of moderate height. 



The nave had at first two north and two south 

 windows, and probably one in the west wall, with 

 west and south doorways, the steep rise of the ground 

 to the north accounting for the absence of a north 

 doorway. The west doorway remains in position, 

 and the south doorway still exists, though reset in the 

 wall of the south aisle, while the north-west window 

 remains perfect, and traces of those on the north-east 

 and south-east survive. The present north-east 

 window is of the same type and date as that in the 



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