270 



Notes on the Churches 



Canon Jackson states (vol. x., p. 313): — " Here was an alien 

 priory of Benedict monks, being a cell or house subordinate to St. 

 Wandragesille's Abbey at Fontanelle, in the diocese of Rouen. 

 How many brethren occupied the Upavon cell, and whether they 

 had any Church or chapel apart from the parish Church, is not 

 known.'''' The large dimensions of the Church would lead one to 

 suppose that it served as the monastic as well as the parish Church. 



S. Peter's. Manningford Bruce. 1 



This is the second instance in Wiltshire of a complete pre-Norman 

 Church, and it is of exceptional interest inasmuch as the other 

 example — that of Bradford — has a square-ended chancel, whilst this 

 has the earlier and more Eastern form of a semi-circular apse. In 

 other respects a great resemblance is seen in the two — the body of 

 the Church in both cases consists of simply nave and chancel ; both 

 have north and south doorways in the nave ; in both cases these 

 doorways are lofty and narrow — the dimensions in this case being 

 8ft. 9in high to the springing, and 3ft. 4in. wide. But here the 

 resemblance ends, for the Bradford Church is erected in the district 

 of a good building material — close to a quarry of oolite which 

 was undoubtedly worked at a very early period — whilst Manningford 

 possesses neither stone, nor clay for making bricks, and the builders 

 of this Church had to procure flints from the chalk hills which 

 limit the Pewsey vale on the north and south, and to content 

 themselves with sufficient workable stones for dressing the quoins 

 and openings. This wide difference in the respective local ad- 

 vantages of the two situations has had, as might be expected, 

 considerable influence in the design and ornamentation. The walls 

 at Bradford are faced on the inside and on the outside with wrought 

 stone, and ornamented by an arcade iu flat relief carried round 

 the building, whilst at Manningford they are composed entirely of 

 flint-work and devoid of ornamentation. How far the greater 



1 In revising these notes for the printer it occurs to rne to say that they do 

 not pretend to more than briefly touch upon the main points of interest iu the 

 building, and the reader is referred to the exhaustive paper by Dr. Baron (to 

 which I allude) for fuller details (vol. xx., p. 122). 



