Mediæval Styles of the English Parish Church (page 2/2)

1. Castor, Northamptonshire, from the South-West. A Norman Church with alterations and additions of each succeeding style.

Early Norman [church] towers sometimes recieved an additional stage within a brief space. Castor (Fig. 1) is a magnificent example of this, and here the upper stage was certainly not contemplated when the tower was first built. In any case, tower-building was slow work; the upper stages are often much later in style than the lower. Indeed, some Norman [...] [more...]

Title Page

THE MEDIÆVAL STYLES
OF THE ENGLISH
PARISH CHURCH [more...]

43. St. Margarets at Cliffe, Kent, with its Normon clerestory [exterior view]

The treatment of the eaves illustrates a very characteristic, though by no means invariable Norman feature, namely, the corbel table, a series of prjecting stones at intervals, carrying a continuous course of long flat stones, forming a fine cornice and giving the eaves greater projection (38. 43, 45). The corbels are generally carved into grotesques [...] [more...]

43. St. Margarets at Cliffe, Kent, with its Normon clerestory [interior view]

Clerestories.—Those Norman churches which were built with aisles seem all to have had clerestories. I do not know of a Norman nave with original aisles without [...] Norman nave clerestories remain at Sutton St. Mary, Whaplode, Walsoken (3), Steyning, Dover, st, Margaret’s at Cliffe (43), and on a less elaborate scale at Overbury. Even the chancels, when aisled, as at St. Peter’s, Northampton, Tilney All Saints, Walsoken and Ledbury, have clerestories. (p. 40) [more...]

46. The South Nave Arcade, Melbourne, Derbyshire, with stilted Norman arcade.

Like the pre-Conquest builders [i.e. before 1066], the Normans knew only one form of arch, th semicicular, with its variants, the segmental (used when the height was limited) and the stilted (46) or horseshoe (which was employed when a taller arch was required). They occasionally employed a lintel over small openings, usually with a relieving arch [...]Worth Matravers and Lullington. [more...]

114. Village Churches of the Decorated Period: Whissendine, Rutland.

St. Andrew’s Church, Whissendine, Rutland; It dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and has a 100-foot tall tower.