36 
probably tbe old Norman fabric. We get tbe date of the body 
of tbe present cburcb, and learn that tbe south wall was 
similar to tbat on tbe north side which still remains. It is also 
I think, pretty evident that the eastern wall which is now being 
removed marked the chancel which was built in 1466 or 1467. 
The traces of walls which have been found outside belong to 
some earlier fabric. 
We must not suppose, however, that the church of St. Olave 
was completed by Michaelmas, 1468. The tower was erected 
some years aftervv^ards. In 1478 Hobert Plumpton, who was 
one of the keepers of the fabric in 1466, leaves 40s. in his will 
towards a stone tower; and in 1483 Lawrence Yole leaves to . 
the same tower three glass windows. The fabric, therefore, 
must have been then ready to receive them. But bells were 
still required. In 1501 a parishioner leaves the modest sum 
of 12d. to the bells of the church, which had been lately 
bought. This shows that they had been procured, and that 
they were not quite paid for. 
The church which was thus erected ous^ht to have been in 
excellent condition at the present day, but it was so much 
injured during the civil wars that it became necessary to rebuild 
it, with the exception of the north wull. In the Archbishop’s 
registry there is a document dated 25th September, 1723, 
stating that the church had been lately rebuilt, and directing 
an apportionment of the sittings. The churchwardens’ books 
will probably give a fair account of this more modern restoration. 
In the vacant space between the present gateway and the 
tower of St. Olave’s Church stood a chapel, known as the chapel 
of St. Mary, or om’ Lady at the Grate. It is not known when 
it was first built, but we have in Drake (p. 603) a copy of a 
deed by which Alan, Abbot of St. Mary’s, and his brethren 
bound themselves and their successors to a person of the name 
of John of Hellebeck to establish and continue a chantry in the 
chapel for the soul of the founder. Hellebeck had provided a 
respectable endowment in the shape of five tofts and four 
oxgangs of land in Myton. This building was called the high 
chapel, so that it stood on what may be called an upper floor, to 
which you would ascend by a stone stair. On the outside, on 
