WOTTON HUNDRED 



WOTTON 



stones to the family of the late Sir Edward Vaughan- 

 Williams. The most interesting of the older monu- 

 ments is a beautifully-carved urn, of white marble, 

 bearing cherubs' heads, which marks the grave of 

 William Glanville nephew of John Evelyn, on the 

 north side of the churchyard. 



The church is largely covered with ivy, especially 

 the tower ; and however picturesque the covering, it 

 is much to be regretted, as causing slow but sure 

 injury to the fabric, and hiding interesting features 

 and marks of age. The walls are for the most part 

 constructed of hard yellow Bargate stone rubble, still 

 covered generally with a thin coat of ancient plaster 

 or mortar, with dressings of Bargate stone and fire- 

 stone. The modern parts are faced with the same 

 rubble and with dressings of a ruddy sandstone and 

 Bath stone, the vestry on the north being of old red 

 brickwork. The roofs are still covered with Horsham 

 slabs, except the porch and vestries, which are tiled. 

 From the fiat conical roof of the tower rises a pic- 

 turesque square wooden superstructure, also covered 

 with a flat-pitched conical roof. 



In plan the church consists of a western tower, 

 1 1 ft. from east to west internally, by 1 5 ft. from north 

 to south ; nave, 3 3 ft. long by 1 8 ft. 

 wide ; chancel, 1 9 ft. long by 1 5 ft. 

 wide ; a short aisle opening by a 

 single arch from the north side of 

 the nave at its eastern end, 17 ft. 6 in. 

 long by 1 3 ft. 6 in. wide, and com- 

 municating with the Evelyn Chapel, 

 on the north side of the chancel, 1 9 ft. 

 long by 146. 6 in. wide. From this 

 again a comparatively modern door 

 opens into a second mortuary chapel 

 recently turned into a parish room for 

 vestry meetings. On the south side 

 of the tower is an exceptionally roomy 

 porch, rebuilt, but upon old founda- 

 tions, and a modern vestry on the 

 south side of the chancel. With all 

 these alterations and additions, the 

 plan of the simple tower, nave, and 

 chancel of the early church re- 

 mains. 



The walls of the nave are of 

 exceptional height (over 1 8 ft.), and 

 they and the lower part of the tower 

 are in all probability of pre-Conquest date ; other 

 indications of this period being the huge stones of 

 which the quoin on the north-west of the nave and 

 the piers of the tower arch are constructed. The 

 plain, rude arch itself, of exceptional height and of 

 flattened horseshoe outline, springing from a point 

 about 6 in. within the line of the jambs, with rudely- 

 chamfered imposts, returned at the ends, is quite 

 consistent with this early date. Both arch and piers 

 are square-edged. The comparative thinness of the 

 east and west walls of the tower (2 ft. 4. in.), taken 

 with their height, and the piers and arch being built 

 of through stones all tooled with the pick, instead 

 of the axe or chisel are other indications of the early 

 date claimed, which may well be about 1050. The 

 upper courses of stones in the piers are in Bargate 



stone, all the rest being in firestone." In the south 

 wall of the tower, to the west of the later doorway, 

 is a small early window, now blocked, unfortunately 

 invisible on the outside owing to the ivy. The north 

 and south walls of the tower are considerably thicker 

 than the east and west over 3 ft. on the north and 

 3 ft. on the south and there is a set-back of a few 

 inches at a height of about 8 ft. from the floor. As 

 usual in early towers, there is no staircase. The 

 upper windows are plain, square-headed openings, 

 much hidden by the ivy, but perhaps of 13th-century 

 date. 



A peculiar and very puzzling feature is the blocked 

 arch in the west wall of the tower, corresponding to 

 that in the east wall. It is a few inches north of the 

 centre of the tower, and while the piers have cham- 

 fered imposts similar to those of the eastern archway, 

 the arch itself is obtusely pointed. This, however, 

 may be due to its crown having been reset at the time 

 when it was blocked up and the early 13th-cen- 

 tury window inserted within it. The puzzle is into 

 what this arch originally opened ; and as all traces 

 above ground of the building have vanished, the 

 suggestion can only be offered tentatively that a por- 



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PLAN OF WOTTON CHURCH 



ftV/,such as has been found in this position at St. Peter's, 

 Barton-on-H umber, and other pre-Conquest churches, 

 may have stood here on the western side of the tower. 

 A little excavation would throw light on the nature of 

 this annexe. 



The two buttresses at either disengaged angle of 

 the tower appear to be ancient features modernized, 

 excepting, possibly, that on the south face, which may 

 be original, but here again the ivy prevents any 

 examination. The north wall of the nave is blank for 

 more than half its length, but a careful search might 

 disclose an original window behind the plaster. 



The south porch, which is built against the wall of 

 the tower, is modern in its present form, but is upon 

 the lines of an older structure. The well-known 

 reference in Evelyn's Diary to his having been in- 



65 The masonry of the piers has some- 

 thing of the appearance of 'long and 

 short' work, a well-known characteristic 

 of pre-Conquest building. Some of the 



' long ' stones are over 2 ft. in height, the 

 ' short ' ones being less than half that 

 dimension. There is a close resemblance 

 between this arch and the early chancel 



'59 



arches, of horse-shoe shape (both pre- 

 Conquest or late iith century) at Elated 

 and Chithurst, Sussex. 



