268 



Notes on the Churches 



pointed. The piers between the arches are square, and have fluted 

 caps with square abaci. 



It is probable there was no nave of stone at that time, but that 

 either the chancel was added to an earlier nave of timber, which 

 served the purpose for a time longer, or a temporary one was erected. 

 However that may be there is no trace of work in this part earlier 

 than about 1200 — 1220, when a large Church with nave and aisles 

 was commenced. The three western bays of the north arcade and 

 the whole of the south arcade (the bays of which arcades, by the 

 way, are not opposite each other) were first erected — these have the 

 inner orders of the arches stopped on columns with moulded caps 

 and bases; but the easternmost arch on the north side was erected 

 some twenty or thirty years later, and it appears to have been cut 

 through a blank wall; its inner order is stopped on carved corbels 

 and the chamfer of the outer order carried down, with stops and 

 plain chamfered base. There is no clerestory. 



At some date unknown the south aisle was pulled down and the 

 arches filled in, but I believe that in this part the only alteration 

 made during the recent restoration was the insertion of new windows. 

 The north aisle is new, but narrow, and probably on the Early 

 English foundations. 



The tower was not erected until late in the thirteenth century, 

 and we have thus another very instructive instance of the slow 

 process by which a village Church was built in ancient times. It 

 is a magnificent and solidly-built structure of unusually broad 

 dimensions. The two lower stages are faced with good close-jointed 

 flint-work on the outside ; the top stage has a coarser facing and 

 it may have been built after a few years' pause, but the corbel-table 

 under the parapet shews that it was completed before the close of 

 the thirteenth century, when it was probably terminated by a 

 pyramidal roof covered with shingles. The parapet was added in 

 the fifteenth century. The stair turret is a prolongation, without 

 break, of the east face of the tower (as at Imber) and is terminated 

 at the belfry level by a stone hipped roof. The belfry windows are 

 of two lights; the west doorway has well-designed jamb and arch 

 mouldings, and a fifteenth century carved crucifix has been fixed 



