388 



THE PRIORY AT LIHOU. 



to be within recent years a few in the sanctuary near the east 

 end, but they have now all disappeared. The sanctuary floor 

 was about 2 feet above the level of the nave floor. 



The worked stones, which are found on the site and also 

 built into the farm buildings (for which the ruins undoubtedly 

 formed a quarry), show that the design of the building of which 

 they formed part must have been far more ornate than any other 

 ecclesiastical building, still existing, of the same date in the 

 Channel Islands. They are of Caen stone and consist of 

 voussoirs of arches, shafts, caps and bases of columns, shiny 

 courses, many with the familiar chevron decorations, and 

 ashlar both moulded and also plain work. 



The remains of the arch stones give us some information 

 as to the arches of which they were an integral part. The 

 setting out from their centres gives us, in four taken at 

 random, arches of the following radius : 1ft. 3in., 3ft. 9in., 

 2ft. 3in., and 2ft. 6in. ; they were all of one pattern, the 

 usual Norman moulding with a bird's beak or dog's tooth stop 

 in the centre of each stone. There are no stones as far as I 

 have discovered, of a large arch, and I am led to think from 

 the larger number of the stones of smaller arches, that part 

 of the wall of the Priory was arcaded. The centres show 

 they were mostly of too small radius to belong to a doorway, 

 and there are quite sufficient of fairly large radius for any 

 openings which could be required. 



At the N.E. and S.E. angles of the sanctuary were two 

 Caen stone shafts with caps and bases. Now these at the 

 time when the sanctuary was built were used to support the 

 ends of the ribs of a groined roof. Hence I arrive at the 

 deduction that the sanctuary roof was groined. The roof 

 would naturally have been vaulted and the step to groining 

 would have been easy. In this case there must have been 

 similar shafts in other parts of the sanctuary, but they have 

 quite disappeared. 



The carvings, mouldings and general details of the worked 

 stones are those of the Transition period, between what is 

 known in England as Norman and early English, and the date 

 in which this was prevalent corresponds to the late 12th and 

 early 13th century. 



There are, so far as I have been able to discover, no 

 traces of worked stone in the nave. The attention of the 

 builders was apparently concentrated on the beautifying of 

 the sanctuary, and the nave remained always, as we see in the 

 older Parish Churches of Guernsey, a kennel-like building 

 without any architectural refinements. 



