320 Notes on the Parish and Saxon Churches, Bradford-on-Avon. 



There are also in the Saxon Church two capitals, a base, and 

 some arch moulds of Transition Norman style, which I suspect 

 are part of the original chancel arch of the Parish Church, the 

 present one dating from the fifteenth century. 



There is an unusually long hagioscope from Horton's Chantry, 

 ending under the canopied tomb against the north wall of the 

 chancel. The intermediate part has been destroyed to form a 

 heating chamber. 



The original nave arcade with its piece of Norman wall left, 

 through which a hagioscope was pierced, was destroyed during 

 last century, and the present uninteresting arches — bad copies of 

 the original — erected. One of the uses of such a Society as ours 

 is to keep a keen look-out and to enter the strongest protest 

 against tampering with our ancient buildings. Had the Society 

 come into existence a few years earlier much that has been de- 

 stroyed in many Churches might have been saved. 



Canon Jones, in his History, speaks of several fragments of the 

 rood screen remaining, and adds " the rood loft still remains." 

 The beam supporting the rood loft and the gallery itself with its 

 front remained until the middle of last century, and was used as 

 a gallery ; it has been swept away. The beam was first used to 

 strengthen the belfry floor, then taken down, and after lying in 

 the churchyard with its original gilding and colour decorations 

 still remaining, is said to have been used for firewood. Of the 

 rood gallery front all that remains is part of two panels (here 

 illustrated): it was sawn into pieces and distributed. The two 

 panels have been cleaned of the varnish and are now fixed on the 

 west wall of the nave. The figures are those of St. Ambrose and 

 St. Jerome, of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, and are worthy of inspection. The original doorway of 

 the rood staircase remains and is a specimen of axed work. In 

 front of it is a case containing a bible believed to be a reprint, in 

 1572, of the Bishops' Bible, published in 1568. It is thought to 

 be the first English version of the bible used in this Church. Since 

 its disuse its history is known, and it has during this year been 

 re-purchased at an old furniture shop in the town and presented 

 to the Church by the churchwardens. 



