40 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture 



The west doorway is unusually lofty having originally opened into 

 a western porch, now destroyed. Upavon has a square Norman 

 tower j and a triple chancel arch late in the style. The most con- 

 spicuous Norman building in Wiltshire is the fragment of the Abbey 

 Church of Malmesbury. Much of it, however, is late in this stylo 

 and belongs rather to the Transition period. Its doorways are well 

 known. The outer south door, with its interlaced bands and series 

 of scriptural medallions, is unsurpassed for richness of decoration by 

 any door in England, We have fine examples of late Norman in 

 the groined chancels of the two Churclies at Devizes, the work of 

 the warlike Bishop Roger, the greatest builder of his day. The 

 Churches at Corsham, Preshute, and several others, preserve their 

 Norman arcades, and at Melksham, amid many alterations, we have 

 enough left to make out the original cruciform Norman Church. 



Passing to Early English, in the unrivalled Cathedral under the 

 shadow of which we are meeting, we have the most perfect example 

 of the style on its grandest scale to be found in England. As is 

 natural, its influence spread, and we find village Churches displaying 

 the same purity of design, harmony of proportions, and dignified 

 simplicity of outline, of which the mother Church set the example. 

 Potterne, which may very probably be ascribed to Bishop Poore, the 

 founder of the Cathedral, may not improperly be called Salisbury 

 in miniature. The simple plan of this noble Church, cruciform 

 without aisles, has come down without any alterations except the 

 addition of a fourteenth century south porch. Broad Hinton is 

 another example of an Early English nave and chancel, and the 

 north wall of the chancel at Enford, with a blank arcade, with an 

 octagonal sacristy connected with the Church by a short narrow 

 passage, may be ascribed to Bishop Poore's influences. Bishops 

 Cannings, though with later alterations which mar its unity, is also 

 a beautiful example in the style, which we find also in great ex- 

 cellence in the chancel of Great Bedwyn, at Collingbourne Kingston, 

 Boyton, Purton, Downton, Amesbury (a very stately example) and 

 many other places. 



The fourteenth century seems to have been less prolific in Church 

 building in Wiltshire than elsewhere. There is, it is true, no want 



