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



141 



from the circumstance of the existence of a low-side window on each 

 side that the houses of the village in the thirteenth century — as at 

 present — were ranged on the north and south of the Church and of 

 the river.) All these windows have trefoil heads with the Decorated 

 1 ' wave-mould " on the edge, and this (except in one case) is con- 

 tinued along the sills ; they also have chamfered curtain arches on 

 the inside. The windows are unusually tall and narrow. The 

 buttresses standing square at the angles are gabled. On the inside 

 there is a beautiful piscina in the south wall of the sacrarium, 

 worked on the same stones with the window ; it has a bowl carved 

 with a free type of foliage, and an ogee label with rather more 

 conventional oak-leaf crockets and a terminal consisting of a bird (or 

 animal ?) holding a bunch of leaves in its mouth. I put the chancel 

 work at circa 1250 — 1260, and it is an interesting example of the 

 transition to the Decorated. The walls are built of flint, originally 

 plastered on the outside, and the dressings are of Chilmark stone. 

 The present east window is modern, and the gable over it has been 

 re-built, but there are indications of the original one, and an 

 engraving of the Church previous to its restoration shows a three- 

 light window with simple tracery. 



It is open to conjecture what was the tower which came between 

 this late Norman nave and thirteenth century chancel, and I conclude 

 that the Norman Church was also cruciform, and that it also had a 

 central tower, which was taken down when the present one was 

 built. This was done, together with the north and south transepts, 

 in the early half of the fourteenth century. Mr. Ward states that 

 the transepts were built by Sir Adam de Stokke, who died in early 

 manhood in 1313, but he does not state his authority for this. The 

 character of the work would have led me to put it some twenty 

 years later than this date, and I am led to question whether 

 it was not carried out as a memorial to Stokke, rather than by him. 

 Mr. Ward puts the tower later, but I think there can be no doubt 

 that the arches are coeval and that the superstructure is a con- 

 tinuation of the same work after the completion of the transepts. 

 The whole of this part of the Church is elaborately designed, and 

 executed with the utmost care ; the walls are faced with cut and 



l 2 



