1915.] EVOLUTION OF THE TOWN CHURCH. 21? 



might it well have been with the Town Church, and thus Ave 

 may take it that the first part erected was the portion now 

 used as the Chancel and Choir. (Fig. 1.) 



Years went on, the small barn-like building was found 

 not large enough to accommodate the increasing population, 

 and little by little the original building was added to, first 

 perhaps by adding a Nave, then Transepts, until the tiny 

 Chapel had grown into the ideal shape of all Christian 

 Churches, cruciform. Everything points to this, and we may 

 be sure our ancestors were as devout in their fashion as the 

 Church people of neighbouring countries. (Fig 2.) 



Having arrived at a Church which had some attempt at 

 proportion, it was an easy step to pass to ornamentation. 

 The next part which appears to have been taken in hand was 

 the crossing place of the Transepts with the main body of the 

 church, and the congregation, or possibly a single member of 

 it, decided to put up a Tower worthy of the Church, and this 

 I think now happened, and whatever we may think of the rest 

 of the building, I think we are all agreed that he or the 

 congregation was eminently successful in their endeavours, and 

 thanks to whoever built this, we are in possession of a Tower 

 which would not disgrace any Cathedral. The builders of 

 the Tower were also looking to the future, and in the building 

 of it, anticipating in the extension on each side of both 

 Chancel and Nave, they left in readiness for the replacing of 

 the side walls by an arcade, large and well-proportioned 

 pilasters on three out of four of the piers of the Tower from 

 which the first arch of the arcading might spring. They did 

 not carry this out on the fourth pier, that on the North-East, 

 as, whether owing to accident or design, the original chancel 

 was slightly wider than the Nave, and in order to allow for 

 this it was necessary to align the outer wall of this part with 

 the outer face of the pier, whereas all the other walls 

 concerned had their centres corresponding with the centres of 

 the Tower piers. These provisions of the builders of the 

 period were carried out as far as the Chancel was concerned, 

 and it is not at all unlikely that this work of extension and 

 forming of two Chapels, one at each side of the original 

 Chancel, was undertaken not very long after the building of 

 the Tower. This was done in the conventional method, by 

 building two aisles alongside the original building and opening 

 communication between the three by replacing the erstwhile 

 outside walls by an arcade and building buttresses on the 

 outside to take the stresses set up by the thrust of the arches. 

 The enlargement thus made is an admirable piece of work, 



