WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



HALSALL 



mentioned, being to light the rood and rood-loft. 

 There are many traces of the beams which carried 

 the rood-loft, which was entered from the south 

 turret by a still existing doorway. Access to the 

 turret is from the south aisle, the lower part of its 

 stone newel being treated as a shaft with moulded 

 capital and base. About ten feet up the stair is 

 lighted by three narrow loops at the same level, one 

 on the south, looking out on the churchyard, one on 

 the north-east, commanding the tomb in the north 

 wall of the chancel, and one on the north-west, 

 towards the nave, below the level of the rood-loft 

 floor. From the north-east loop nothing but the 

 tomb in the north wall can be seen, and it is 

 evidently built for that object only. It was in all 

 probability used for watching the Easter Sepulchre 

 erected over the tomb. Anyone standing here 

 could also command the entrance of the chancel 

 from the nave and the south-east portion of the 

 churchyard. 



The south aisle of the nave has been largely 

 rebuilt, but retains a piscina in the east end of its 

 south wall. At the foot of the east wall a course of 

 masonry of 3 in. projection runs southward from the 

 angle by the turret doorway for 6 ft. 3 in., and its 

 reason is not apparent, but it may show that the 

 floor level here was originally higher, and it is further 

 to be noted that this would go some way towards 

 accounting for the curious fact that the base of the 

 south nave respond is a foot higher than that of the 

 north.' The east wall with its window and angle 

 buttresses are of the chancel date, agreeing exactly 

 in detail with the south windows of the chancel. 

 There is a little ancient glass, some of it of original 

 date, in this window. It is chiefly made up of frag- 

 ments collected from other places, but the two angels 

 in the tracery seem designed for their position. 

 Owing to the projection of the stair turret the 

 window is thrown considerably out of centre, and 

 the roof timbers barely clear its head. It is con- 

 ceivable that a gabled roof was contemplated in the 

 projected rebuilding, which came to a sudden stop at 

 this point. It naturally occurs to the mind that a 

 stoppage of work on a building of this date, circa 

 1350, may be a result of the Black Death of 1348-9, 

 which has left so many traces of its severity all over 

 the country. The south doorway and porch entrance, 

 mentioned above as partly rebuilt with the old 

 masonry, are alike in detail, of three orders with 

 wave moulding. Over the outer entrance is a modern 

 niche with a figure of St. Cuthbert. 



In the north aisle nothing ancient remains but the 

 west wall and window of two lights with fourteenth- 

 century tracery and jambs and head with wave 

 moulding. A little old glass is set in the window, 

 a piece of vine-leaf border being of fourteenth-century 

 date. The west face of this wall shows a straight 

 joint, partly bonded across, on the line of the north 

 arcade wall, which tells of a stage in the building of 

 the nave when its west wall was built, but not that 

 of the aisle. In this case it seems doubtful, as the 

 masonry is so alike in both parts, whether the angle 

 is much earlier than the aisle wall and represents an 



aisleless nave. The evidence at the corresponding 

 western angle is destroyed. 



Externally the nave has little of interest to show ; 

 the main roof has a plain parapet, much patched at 

 various dates. On the north side is a tablet with 

 churchwardens' names of 1700,' and another on the 

 south, with the date illegible, but of much the same 

 time.' The modern aisle-windows are good of their 

 kind, square-headed, with tracery of fourteenth- 

 century style. 



The west tower is 1 26 ft. high, of three stages 

 with a stone spire, which is modern, replacing an 

 old spire of somewhat different outline. The octa- 

 gonal parapet at its base is also modern, with the 

 four gargoyles representing the evangelistic symbols. 

 They replace four ancient gargoyles in the shape of 

 nondescript monsters, now to be seen set up among 

 the ruins of the fourteenth-century building north- 

 east of the church. The top of the parapet is 63 ft. 

 from the ground. The tower is of the first half of 

 the fifteenth century ; whether the church had a 

 tower before this time does not appear, but the 

 foundations of the west wall of the nave are said to 

 run across the tower arch, and there must have been 

 a western wall of some sort, temporary or otherwise, 

 before the building of the present tower, unless per- 

 haps an older tower was preserved at the rebuilding 

 of the nave. The design is that of the Aughton and 

 Ormskirk towers, with square base and octagonal 

 belfry and spire. In the belfry stage are four square- 

 headed two-light windows, with a quatrefoil in the 

 head ; the second stage contains the ringing floor, 

 and forms the transition from octagon to square. The 

 lowest stage has a two-light square-headed west 

 window and boldly projecting corner buttresses, with 

 raking gabled sets-ofF reminiscent of the chancel 

 buttresses. In the head of the northern of the two 

 western buttresses is a small roughly cut sinking 

 which may have held a small figure. The tower 

 stair is in the south-west angle, entered from within 

 through a low angle doorway with jambs having the 

 common fifteenth-century double ogee moulding ; 

 the stones of the jambs are marked with Roman 

 numerals for the guidance of the masons in placing 

 them. The tower arch of three orders is 26 ft. 

 4 in. high, with an engaged shaft on the inner order 

 and continuous mouldings on the two outer, the 

 detail being very good. Part of the walling above 

 it may be of the nave date, and consequently a 

 remnant of the former west wall. 



The font has a circular basin panelled with quatre- 

 foils on a circular fluted stem, which is the only 

 ancient part, and appears to be of the early part of 

 the fourteenth century. In the churchyard are se- 

 veral mediaeval grave slabs, turned out of the church 

 during restoration ; it would be a very desirable 

 thing to bring them under cover, even if replacing in 

 the nave floor is impossible. The octagonal panelled 

 base of a churchyard cross is also to be seen, and the 

 churchyard wall is of some age, probably sixteenth 

 century, having a good deal of its old coping re- 

 maining. There is a picturesque sun-dial of 1725 

 with a baluster stem. Of wall paintings the church 



1 The position is a normal one for a 

 charnel, beneath the east end of the 

 aisle, and the fioor level might well be 

 raised on this account. 



2 The inscription reads : — 



lOHN . SEGAR 

 HENRY . YATE 

 CHURCHWARD • 

 N. B. R. 1700. 



e. Nathaniel Brownell, Rector. 



' The inscription is : — 



RICHARD HES 

 KETH ROBERT 

 MAUDESLEY 

 CHURCHWAR 



DENS lllllllll 



187 



