22 Amesbury Church* "Reasons for thinking that it 



conclusive, is an argument that it was not a door of entrance into 

 the Church, and that therefore the Church never extended any 

 further west than at present. Mr. Kemm also seems to think that 

 it did not communicate with the Church, though, if the nave has 

 been shortened, as he wishes to make out, it must have done so. 



Mr. Butterfield also altered the south end of the south transept, 

 and, in that case, he may have been quite justified. Mr. Kemm 

 says there was formerly there " a circular-headed door and window, 

 with a flat oval window over, of the date 1721, quite out of keeping 

 with a Gothic building." 



Mr. Butterfield also built an unsightly turret, on the exterior of 

 the Church, at or near the junction of the chancel and north 

 transept, evidently to replace a turret shown on Sir Eichard Hoare's 

 plan, inside the transept, which must have been a great obstruction 

 of the space, and could hardly be original. Mr. Kemm says : — 

 " The present tower seems not to have been intended to carry bells, 

 but as a lantern to the building." That seems probable. There 

 were four bells, at the Dissolution, in the steeple of the Priory 

 Church. Probably, not more than one might be required, before 

 that date, for the Parish Church. There are now six bells, besides 

 a small priest's bell, the two earliest of which were founded or cast 

 by J. Wells, of Aldbourne, in 1619, one being given by Frances, 

 third wife of Edward, Earl of Hertford, son of the Protector 

 Somerset. I think the turret, in the transept, shown by Sir Eichard 

 Hoare, was probably built to afford access to the present belfry, 

 when it became necessary to have several bells. 



It is known that some portion of the monastic buildings stood 

 on the site of the present Abbey House. I understand that the 

 distance, from that house to the present Church, is about 850 feet. 

 This distance is a very great one, in any case, on the supposition 

 that the present Church was the Priory Church, though we are 

 informed that the monastery and its precincts, including garden, 

 orchards, fish-ponds, cemetery, &c, covered twelve acres of 

 ground. 



Mr. Kemm says that he remembered when the last visible re- 

 maining portion of the ancient domestic buildings of the monastery 



