MEONSTOKE HUNDRED 



SOBERTON 



SOBERTON CHURCH 



O tp 2O 3,O 



1O 



Scale of feet' 



church a north aisle was added c. 1200, and about 

 thirty years later the aisle was lengthened westward, 

 the side walls of the western chamber pierced with 

 arches and its east wall pulled down, a west tower 

 built, and a south aisle added, being returned on the 

 west outside the line of the west wall of the chamber. 

 The side walls of the tower were also pierced to give 

 a free passage 5 ft. 6 in. wide across the west end of 

 the church, 168 and in the west wall of the chamber 

 were three arches, throwing the passage open to the 

 body of the church. The two eastern bays of the 

 south arcade seem to have been the last part of this 

 scheme of enlargement. About 1270 a south tran- 

 sept was added, 1 6 ft. wide from east to west, its east 

 wall being about a foot further to the east than the 

 corresponding wall of the nave, and its west wall a 

 little to the west of the east side of the first pillar of 

 the south arcade. The intention seems to have been 

 to accommodate the transept to the first bay of the 

 arcade. 



The chancel arch was rebuilt about 1300, its 

 southern respond being set a little further to the east, 

 so that it might be exactly 

 abutted by the east wall of 

 the transept, and it thus 

 became out of square with 

 the nave walls. About 

 1330 the south wall of the 

 chancel was rebuilt on the 

 line of that of the nave, 

 and just outside that of 

 the former south wall. The 

 chancel was, as it seems, 

 lengthened eastward at the 

 same time, and a vestry 

 added on the north-east, 

 but the north wall was prob- 

 ably not rebuilt, as the old 

 line was retained, and the 

 chancel arch was thus 

 thrown out of centre with 

 the chancel. Little was 

 done to the church in the 

 fifteenth century beyond the 

 heightening of the south 

 wall of the south aisle, 

 but early in the sixteenth 



century the north chapel was added, filling the 

 space between the north vestry and north aisle ; 

 the north wall of the north aisle was taken down 

 for some two-thirds of its height, and rebuilt of 

 less thickness on the remains of the old wall, and 

 the present west tower built round the old tower, 

 the east wall of which was incorporated in the 

 east wall of the new tower. This latter was made to 

 project as little as might be beyond the west wall of 

 the thirteenth-century church, evidently for the same 

 reason which had dictated the piercing of the side 

 walls of the former tower, namely, that the lengthen- 

 ing of the church had brought its west wall up to 

 the western boundary of the churchyard. This made 

 it impossible to find room for a procession path round 

 the outside of the church while still keeping within 

 the limits of the churchyard, and the expedient 

 adopted to provide such a way was the piercing of 

 the north and south walls of the tower in the manner 

 the reason for this treatment of the tower 



already described. The south doorway was also set 

 at the extreme west of the south aisle, on the line of 

 the passage, and made of unusual width, but there is 

 no evidence that there was ever a north-west door- 

 way to correspond, as the scheme seems to demand. 

 On the contrary, the north doorway of the church 

 seems to occupy about the same position as that of 

 the early church, though of course more to the north. 



The chancel has an east window of three lights 

 with net tracery, c. 1330, and in the south wall are 

 two windows of the same date, each of two trefoiled 

 ogee lights, and a small trefoiled low side window at 

 the south-west angle, with an internal rebate, and a 

 squint from the south transept in its west jamb. To 

 the east of this window is a plain doorway. In the 

 north wall of the chancel are two early sixteenth- 

 century arches, with octagonal moulded capitals and 

 bases opening to a north chapel, now, and probably 

 in part from the first, used as a vestry. Its east 

 window is of the date of the chancel, of two trefoiled 

 ogee lights. 



The chancel arch is of two orders, the outer with 



12OO 

 1230 



1)300 

 Il330 



I modem 



188 See below for 

 and western aisle. 



an edge-roll, and the inner chamfered with a moulded 

 label, and in the jambs are engaged half-round shafts 

 with moulded capitals and bases ; its irregular setting 

 and date have already been noticed. 



The nave is of three bays, the two eastern bays of 

 the north arcade, c. 1200, having a central round 

 column, with plain bell capital and square abacus, 

 pointed arches of a single square order with cham- 

 fered labels, and plain square responds. The third 

 bay of the arcade has a later thirteenth-century arch 

 of two chamfered orders, the inner order springing 

 from moulded corbels, and there is a similar but 

 narrower arch on the same line over the west aisle. 

 The south arcade has a like arrangement at the west, 

 but its two eastern bays have half-octagonal responds, 

 an octagonal central column with moulded capitals, 

 and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. Their 

 date can be but little later than the work at the west. 



The north aisle opens to the chapel by a modern 

 arch, over which is a small two-light window, also 

 modern. The rood-stair, now blocked, is in the 



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