A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



been extensive, and little early work remains. The 

 capitals and arches of the north arcade of the nave 

 date from the beginning of the thirteenth century, 

 and from the evidence of windows discovered in 1868 

 in the north wall of the chancel it appeared that the 

 chancel was also of thirteenth-century date. It was, 

 however, remodelled in the fifteenth century, or in the 

 late fourteenth, and to that time its earliest features 

 now belong. The tower is recorded to have fallen 

 31 December, 1582, and to have been rebuilt in 

 1 584-9 ; the north aisle was rebuilt in 1637, and the 

 south aisle in 1652. The south arcade of the nave 

 was destroyed in 1 798 to make place for a gallery 

 over the aisle, the wooden posts carrying this 

 gallery and the nave roof being replaced in 1822 by 

 Tuscan columns in Portland stone. In 1894 these 

 in their turn gave way to a modern arcade in four- 

 teenth-century style, and the gallery was removed. 

 The church generally was restored in 1864-8, and 

 again in 1894, and in 1849 the west end of the nave 

 was rebuilt. The nave roof was ' new made ' in 

 1669, and the west gallery was set up in 1733 to hold 

 the organ. The chancel has a three-light east window 

 with fifteenth-century tracery, and a rose on the 

 crown of the rear arch, a fifteenth-century north 

 window of two lights at the west, and two like 

 windows on the south, the eastern of which has 

 modern tracery ; between them is a plain priest's 

 doorway. The roof is old, low-pitched, and open- 

 timbered, with arched braces, and the altar-rails are a 

 pretty example ofseventeenth-century work with turned 

 balusters and a carved top rail. The altar-table is also 

 of the seventeenth century, with carved legs. The quire 

 seats and marble pavement date from 1 894. In the 

 same year the chancel arch, which is of two continuous 

 chamfered orders, was made symmetrical, its south 

 jamb having been at some time cut back and the arch 

 widened in a clumsy manner on one side only. The 

 extent of the widening is still to be seen, as the lower 

 part of the cut-back jamb is preserved, a space being 

 left between it and the new jamb, and the result 

 might easily be mistaken for a mediaeval squint. 



The north arcade of the nave has plain octagonal 

 capitals and pointed arches of two chamfered orders in 

 Bonchurch stone, with half-round responds in chalk 

 at either end. The circular columns were of the 

 same material till 1894, but being out of the per- 

 pendicular they were then rebuilt as they now appear, 

 with new bases on a slightly different line from the old. 

 Of the capitals only those to the responds are old. 

 At the east end of the north aisle is preserved a large 

 late twelfth-century scalloped capital, perhaps from 

 the old south arcade, and worked to fit a round 

 column. With it is the stem of a twelfth-century 

 pillar piscina with zigzag ornament, which has been 

 re-used in the fifteenth century as part of the shaft of 

 a canopied niche. 



The north aisle, known as the Ashton aisle, and 

 said to have been built with the stones of Ashton 

 chapel, which stood near Chapel Farm, has a three- 

 light east window with a curious and clumsy attempt 

 at fifteenth-century tracery, doubtless dating from the 

 rebuilding of 1637, and is lighted on the north by 

 three square-headed windows each of three cinque- 

 foiled lights of better style. The gallery over the 

 vestry at its west end was formerly used as the school, 

 and is reached from the west by a stair in a projecting 

 buttress, dated 1637. It is lighted on the north by a 



four-light window with uncusped four-centred lights, 

 and gives access on the south to the west gallery of the 

 nave. This preserves its panelled front of 1733, a 

 good specimen of its kind, but no longer holds the 

 organ, which is now in the east end of the south 

 aisle. 



The south aisle has an east window of the same 

 kind as that in the north aisle, and in its south wall 

 three three-light windows, also like those in the 

 north aisle. It is faced with wrought stone externally, 

 a good deal of which looks like twelfth-century 

 material re-used. Over the east window is a stone 

 dated 1652, with the initials of the churchwardens, 

 then as now four in number. Before 1894 there 

 were dormer windows on the south with stone tracery, 

 set up in 1867 to light the south gallery, and replacing 

 wooden dormers. In the west bay of the aisle is the 

 south door and porch, with detail of sixteenth-century 

 character, and a panelled door dated 1613, while on 

 its large key is the date 1 68 1. The doorway may 

 perhaps be of the same date as the door, as the west 

 wall of the porch, which is also of late Gothic character, 

 is built against and is therefore later than the south- 

 east buttress of the tower, and this latter is recorded 

 to have been rebuilt in 1584-9. The rebuilding, 

 however, may not have been from the foundations. 

 In any case, there must have been a re-use of old 

 material in the seventeenth-century work, and it is not 

 likely that the whole of the window tracery is of the 

 same date as the poor stuff in the heads of the east 

 windows of the two aisles. 



The tower is of three stages, with square-headed 

 windows of two uncusped four-centred lights in each 

 stage on the west face, and in all four faces in the 

 belfry stage. At the south-west angle is a newel stair, 

 with a plain circular turret, probably of eighteenth- 

 century date, rising above the parapet of the tower. 

 The tower opens to the south aisle by a four-centred 

 doorway, and has a west doorway of brick to the 

 churchyard. In the south wall of its ground story is 

 a locker rebated for a door and with a groove for a 

 shelf, removed from the chancel in 1867, and in the 

 north wall is a second recess, probably in situ, and 

 dating from the rebuilding of the tower. A list of 

 ringers' rules, dated 1766, and renewed in 1835, is 

 kept here. 



The west front of the nave, dating from 1849, has 

 a four-light window of fifteenth-century style, and 

 below it a west doorway. 



The nave roof, as already noted, was ' new made ' 

 in 1669, and the aisle roofs are probably of the same 

 date, though both may contain older timbers re-used. 

 The pulpit in the north-east angle of the nave is a 

 great ornament to the church, and dates from c. 1 600. 

 It is hexagonal with a panelled body on a stem, the 

 panels inclosing arches with strapwork borders, under 

 pediments. Over the pulpit is a very fine tester, 

 relegated to the tower in 1867, but repaired and 

 replaced in 1894, with strapwork cresting and pen- 

 dants, and a panelled soffit, in the centre of which is 

 a rose. 



The font, at the south-west of the nave, is modern, 

 and has a square bowl worked with shallow tracery 

 patterns. 



There are no monuments of importance, the best 

 being that of Thomas Ashton, 1629, on the north 

 wall of the north aisle. It is said to have been 

 brought from Ashton chapel, and is a pretty alabaster 



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