28 



The Parish Church of 8. Michael, Mere. 



This cliapel has been very unfortunate in the matter of its roof, 

 for the present is at least the fourth which has been put on. There 

 was certainty one of Bettesthorne's work (not to go back farther), 

 which was of the pitch of the existing roof ; then, towards the end 

 of the sixteenth century a roof of lower pitch was substituted, the 

 gable being reduced to the level of the side parapet, which was 

 continued round. Aubrey refers to this roof as having some " good 

 carved worke," and it existed in Hoare's time, as the engraving of 

 the exterior of the Church shows, 1 and the two stone corbels (of the 

 basest type of grotesque) and oak wall pieces which formed part of it 

 still remain. The third roof was a very mean and weak one, of flat 

 pitch and slated, put on some sixty years ago. The present roof 

 was -put on in 1892, from money left for the purpose by Miss Julia 

 E. Chafyn- Grove, who had previously (in 1883) restored the altar 

 to the chapel and opened it for daily service. 2 



Very soon after the erection of this chapel an enlargement of 

 the body of the Church seems to have been necessary, and the pro- 

 jection of the south chapel naturally suggested the widening of the 

 south aisle to the extent of 5ft. 7in., to bring it in line with the 

 chapel. The south porch, with its priests' chamber over, and 

 staircase for access to the same and on to the roof, was erected at 

 the same time — not later than 1370. It will be seen that the 

 plinth of the chapel is continued in the aisle, although the windows 

 and parapets differ. 



In the aisle are four (three in the south wall and one in the west) 

 three-light pointed windows with tracery of reticulated type and 

 chisel-pointed cusps, the outside labels here and in the outer south 

 doorway, as in the chapel, being worked on the arch-stones. 



The mullions and tracery are plainly splayed — not moulded — as 



1 Hundred of Mere, p. 10. 

 2 "The lands belonging to this chantry were obtained at the Dissolution by 

 the Protector Somerset for his Secretary, Sir John Thynne, by whom they were 

 sold to Thomas Chafyn, of Zeals, and by his representatives, the Groves, of Zeals, 

 the chapel is now used for burial." (Foot-note to Jackson's Aubrey, p. 387.) 

 Hoare {Hund. of Mere, p. 12,) gives the date of sale as 11th November, 1563. 



