By C. E. Pouting, F.S.A. 



283 



arch of two orders, the outer enriched by the chevron and sup- 

 ported by detached shafts, which have cushion caps. The label 

 has the hatched ornament ; the tympanum is filled with a geo- 

 metrical ornament of the " maze " type. The north doorway is 

 very similar, but the inner member of the arch has a kind of leaf- 

 and-ball ornament, and the tympanum has a sunk diaper pattern 

 cut in it ; the label is returned horizontally the full width of the 

 bay and stops against the buttresses. The chancel arch is of the 

 same type of work — a semicircular arch with label, the inner order 

 a plain broad one, and the outer order a chevron on the nave side, 

 supported on shafts, the caps of which are carved to represent birds. 



The work above described can hardly be later than the first 

 quarter of the 12th century, and yet it would appear that (at any 

 rate as regards the buttresses) so far from its representing the first 

 Church erected here, it is only the re-modelling of a still older 

 structure, the walls of which remain on the inside, and that the 

 buttresses and the outer facing of the walls are only a casing. This 

 is certainly so on the south side, for, on removing some loose in- 

 ternal plastering opposite the buttress westward of the doorway, 

 the inner part of the arch and the east jamb of a window were 

 discovered, the outer parts having been removed and the window 

 blocked in the erection of the 12th century buttress. The inside 

 opening of the window must have been about 2 feet 7 inches wide, 

 it has a semicircular arch with voussoirs inches deep, each with 

 the same mason's mark, thus + roughly cut ; the stones have an 

 axed worked surface ; both jambs and arch had a deep splay. The 

 west jamb of the window was removed to insert the adjacent 

 window in the loth century, and this precludes the entire opening 

 out of it. It has none of the usual characteristics of pre-Norman 

 work: and I conclude that a very early Norman wall having 

 shown signs of leaning outwards, it was thickened out at the 

 period referred to, the fenestration altered, and the buttress 

 erected with the object of strengthening it. 1 



1 That the foundations were always bad is a fact which accounts for the 

 continued displacement of the wall which had very nearly resulted in its 

 collapse, when the work of underpinning was recently undertaken. 



