Chaddesden
Summing up, we may say that in a parochial chancel seats were required (1) for the parish priest, the parish clerk and any chaplains or chantry priests; (2) for the patron and a few of the leading churchfolk of the village; (3) for a choir of men and boys which was occasionally enlarged by choirmen and choristers borrowed from neighbouring churches. Altogether quite a considerable number of seats would be required; and we need not be surprised that there are so many stalls in small village churches, but rather that they are not more; no doubt, however, additional forms or benches would be introduced on days of great festival.
Not every parish church could afford to have a set of stalls made, cathedral fashion, for its chancel. In many cases probably the seats were but benches or settles; and the naked, desolate
look of many spacious chancels is no doubt due to the removal of these seats. Desks, or as they were Latinised "deski," there must have been, at least one at each side, on which to place the anthem book, processioner and other music. We hear of a double desk at St Mary at Hill; but only the richest parishes seem to have provided desks for the choir boys as well as for the men. In poor parishes the men had not armed stalls, but merely a bench to sit on.[[61]] The boys sometimes had a bench; sometimes, as at Stowlangtoft, Suffolk ([91]), the bench was framed into the desk behind. At the back of the choirmen's seats, there might be bare wall; or it might be panelled, as at Sall, Norfolk ([85]), or arcaded, as at Chichester Cathedral ([36]). In richer examples there might be above the panelling a coved cornice, as at Stowlangtoft and Balsham, Cambridge ([3]). A still more sumptuous design was to erect a horizontal canopy above the stalls, as at St Peter's ([89]) and All Saints' ([45]), Hereford, and Brancepeth, John Cosin's church, Durham ([93]). The return stalls, facing east, would be those of the parish priest and his clerical helpers, and were often more spacious and lofty than the rest, and backed on to the screen, as at Chaddesden, Derbyshire ([99]), and Trunch, Norfolk ([85]).
The workmanship of the best stalls is quite first rate. At All Saints', Hereford, the timber of the stalls is "good sound English oak, all either cleft or cut in the quarter, proving that the trees were converted into the smallest possible sizes before being sawn from either end, the very rough saw-kerfs meeting at an angle in the centre of the board."[[62]] The stalls frequently stand on stone plinths, pierced for ventilation; e.g., at Sall and Trunch ([85]).
PART II
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