By C. Haslcins. 3 



in 1404, later in the same year the Dean and Chapter granted 

 "*' XII Merkes " towards the work of the Campanile of St. Thomas' 

 Church, the amount to he advanced from the Treasury of the 

 Cathedral till it should be repaid from the fruits and profits of the 

 Church. 



After its completion people had to pass beneath this tower 

 through an open arch into the Church. You probably have 

 noticed on the top of the tower a mushroom-shaped erection 

 of lead, which covers what one might describe as an incipient 

 spire. Undoubtedly it was originally intended to finish off the 

 tower with an open lace- work spire, but — as Mr. Doran Webb 

 suggests — the builders finding that the thrust of the spire, 

 with the rather thin walls, would be too much for the 

 building, never carried the work beyond this small fragment of an 

 octagonal spire. Old pictures of the Church show pinnacles upon 

 the tower ; these were a constant source of trouble and expense 

 to the churchwardens, and they were removed early in the nine- 

 teenth century. 



The next information we get respecting the Church is that in 

 the year 1447 the chancel or a part of it fell down, destroying in 

 its fall one of the aisles, the latter being probably the Chapel of 

 St. Stephen. An old deed dated 1448 (Dean and Chapter records) 

 shows that the Dean and Chapter, who were under the rectorial 

 obligation of seeing to the maintenance of the chancel, had decided 

 to rebuild it upon the old lines, but the parishioners, amongst 

 whom were the wealthy merchants, William Swayne, John Halle, 

 Henry Swayne, and members of the Godmanstone family, were 

 anxious to have a larger and more noble chancel than the old one, 

 and they showed their devotion to the fabric of their Church by 

 their eagerness to take a share in the work of increasing its size 

 and its beauty. Consequently, on the 4th June in the 26th year 

 of Henry VI., an agreement was signed between the Dean and 

 Chapter and certain parishioners duly elected for the purpose, by 

 the commonalty of the parish, including Willm. Swayne and John 

 Halle, by which agreement the parishioners undertook to do all 

 that the Dean and Chapter would not do to complete the enlarged 



B 2 



