INGRAM CHURCH 281 



seemed the danger to Archdeacon Sharp in 1763 "^ that he 

 ordered two buttresses on the outside, and a wall of stone 

 on the inside. This was done, and half of the inside chamber 

 was blocked up with stones to the bottom of the windows. 

 This lower half was probably erected between 1150 and 1200, 

 and the older Church was kept standing until funds could 

 be raised to build this one, and complete the tower, which 

 no doubt occupied them many yeai's, possibly forty or fifty. 

 The later building has been of greatly superior quality. 

 An architect was employed. The stones have been mostly 

 quarried, well squared and chiselled. The workmanship displays 

 in the bases and capitals of the pillars, and in the arches of 

 two orders, better skill and taste, and has proved enduring. 

 The characteristics are all common to the Early English period. 

 The arcading on both sides of the nave, the chancel arch, 

 and the upper portion of the tower, were all of about the 

 same time. It is noticeable that the third arch, on the South 

 side counting from the entrance, is smaller than the others, 

 yet the fourth is larger. Probably the solid blocks of masonry 

 on both sides between the third and fourth arches, and the 

 square rough piers at the West end of the arcading on both 

 sides with the Norman mouldings above them, instead of 

 other dressed octagonal or semi-octagonal pillars and capitals, 

 were owing to want of funds, and coeval. The mouldings 

 upon the capitals vary, no two being exactly alike ; the nail 

 head is upon one. The bracket above the pulpit for the 

 image of the patron saint (who according to tradition is 

 St. Michael)^ is decorated with a couple of fern leaves, and 

 there is a carved fleur-de-lis surmounting the capital nearest 



^ The Archdeacon of Northnmborland when visiting the church at a 

 date between the years 1747 and 1758 writes: — "The glebe [of Ingram] 

 lies intermixed, ridge and ridge, with the estate of Mr Ogle the patron, 

 and, being let to the same tenant, is in danger of being lost or diminished, 

 if not speedily set out by some distinguishing marks. I have writ to 

 Mr Radley, the rector, concerning it ; but have had no answer. He does 

 not reside on his living, nor seems to regard it." Proceedings of the 

 Neivcastle Society of Antiquaries, 2 Series, Vol. v., p. 158. — Ed. 



^ Cf. Bacon's Liher Regis cited by C. J. Bates, Archoeologia Mliana, 

 2 Series, Vol. xm., p. 344.— Ed. 



