A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



had wooden casements from the first, but the old 

 woodwork and the latticed panes have given place to 

 modern frames. There is a second porch on the 

 west side of the house, the masonry of which seems 

 to belong to the seventeenth-century work, but the 

 position is unusual, and the doorway itself of com- 

 paratively modern date. Probably the building was 

 not a porch in the first instance. The eighteenth- 

 century additions, in the form of a block added to the 

 east of the older house, follow it in all details except 

 in being entirely faced with brick and showing no 

 flint work. In the early years of the nineteenth 

 century a set of rooms was added to the south side of 

 the house, doubling its thickness from north to south. 

 Here also the details follow the older work for the 

 most part, but are worked in cement instead of brick, 

 and the south front is faced with cement marked with 

 false masonry joints. The whole of the interior 

 of the house seems to have been remodelled at this 

 time, with finely-worked plaster cornices and ceilings 

 far superior to the unattractive exterior of this date. 

 The hall occupies the traditional position, with the 

 entrance doorway at its lower end, but is merely 

 a one-story vestibule, and a good example of the 

 nearly completed transition from the mediaeval to 

 the modern treatment. 



The church of CORH4MPTON, 

 CHURCH which has no known dedication, is a 

 small building with chancel and north 

 vestry, nave and south porch, and a wooden bell- 

 turret on the west gable of the nave. 



Except the vestry and porch, and the east half of 

 the chancel, it dates from pre-Conquest times, and 

 perhaps belongs to the first .half of the eleventh cen- 

 tury. The features of this date which still exist are 

 the chancel arch, the north doorway of the nave and 

 part of the south, the external pilaster strips on the 

 nave and chancel, the angle quoins of the nave, the 

 sun-dial east of the south porch, and perhaps the 

 openings for bells high in the west wall. The upper 

 part of the west gable has been rebuilt, the roof 

 renewed, the north door blocked, and the south 

 nearly entirely removed to make way for a later door- 

 way, while the east half of the chancel has given 

 way at some time and been rebuilt in brick, and is 

 probably a little shorter than at first. The chancel 

 measures I oft. 6 in. east to west by 14 ft. within 

 the walls, and has a modern east window of three 

 lights, and a narrow thirteenth-century lancet at the 

 south-west, while at the south-east is a stone seat with 

 arms, perhaps of thirteenth-century date, and formerly 

 serving as a sedile. Externally a length of original 

 walling remains at the south-west, of flint rubble with 

 a pilaster strip of Binstead stone set in it. The 

 chancel arch, 7 ft. 9 in. wide by I 3 ft. high to the 

 crown, is semicircular, of one square order, with plain 

 imposts, and has on the west face a projecting rib 

 framing the arch, and formerly running down the 

 jamb. At its apex is a small projecting keystone. 

 The nave, 36ft. by 17 ft. 3 in. (17 ft. 9 in. at the 

 west), is 1 6 ft. high to the plate level, not having the 

 excessive proportion of height to breadth so often 

 found in early churches. It has no traces of original 

 windows, being lighted towards the east by single 

 lancet windows on the north and south, while a third 

 is inserted in the blocking of the north doorway. 

 This doorway is the most interesting architectural 

 feature of the church, and has a plain semicircular 



head and jamb cut straight through the wall without 

 a reveal. A plain rib frames head and jambs on the 

 outside, having imposts at the springing with cha- 

 racteristic horizontal mouldings, and stepped bases. 

 The doorway is disproportionately high to the wall 

 in which it is set, and from the highest point of the 

 rib which frames it a pilaster strip runs to the eaves. 

 The south doorway was of the same description, but 

 nothing but the rib framing its arch is now to be 

 seen, with the pilaster strip over it. In the north and 

 south walls of the nave are pilaster strips, two in 

 each, symmetrically set at an average distance of 9 ft. 

 from the east and west angles, and in the middle of 

 the west wall is another. All rise from a projecting 

 base course, and at the eaves were stopped by a hori- 

 zontal course of wrought stone, which is continued 

 across the west gable, having above it the two square- 

 headed openings which seem to have held bells in the 

 first instance. The angles of the nave have quoins 

 of long and short work, all these details being worked 

 in Binstead stone, except the openings in the 

 western gable. The heads of these latter have lately 

 been rebuilt in flint and tiles. The grooves made in 

 their jambs by the bells can now be clearly seen from 

 the west gallery in the nave. An unusual feature is 

 the treatment of the bases of the pilaster strips ; they 

 spring from a group of three simply-treated scrolled 

 leaves or brackets, resting on the base-course, the best 

 preserved example being that to the west of the south 

 doorway of the nave. To the east of the doorway 

 is a square stone set in the wall carved with a circular 

 dial, the angles of the stone being filled in with 

 groups of three-pointed leaves ; it is probably con- 

 temporary with the wall in which it is set. 



The south doorway has a pointed arch with a wide 

 hollow chamfer, and is probably of thirteenth-century 

 date ; a modern masonry porch is built over it, in 

 which is now preserved an altar slab of irregular 

 shape, 5 ft. long by I ft. I o^ in. wide at the north end, 

 and I ft. 7 in. wide at the south. Till lately it served 

 as a seat under the yew tree south of the church, but 

 in the earlier part of the last century was in the floor 

 of the church. It is notable for having, besides the 

 five usual crosses, a sixth on the front edge, in the 

 middle of its length. 



The nave walls have gone over southwards, the 

 greatest lean being of I o inches in the middle of the 

 south wall, and near the west angle of the same wall 

 a large raking buttress of brick has been built. The 

 nave roof retains some old timbers, perhaps of fifteenth- 

 century date, and the wooden bell-turret has lately 

 been renewed, with details copied from some early 

 seventeenth-century woodwork found in it at a late 

 repair. A good deal of the internal plastering is 

 ancient, and on the north, south, and west walls of 

 the nave are a number of incised lines, done when 

 the plaster was fresh, chiefly in the form of circles 

 containing crosses formed by intersecting arcs of simi- 

 lar circles, a detail commonly used in consecration 

 crosses. Here there seem to be too many of them 

 to be thus identified there are three side by side 

 on the north wall and they are probably decorative. 

 Some very interesting remains of decorative painting 

 have been lately uncovered on the west face of the 

 chancel arch, and on the north, south, and west walls 

 of the chancel. The latter show a band of figure 

 subjects high on the wall, and painted drapery below, 

 in which are set square panels inclosing circles, which 



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