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