presents a majestic appearance of solemnity, calculated to raise devout and profound veneration towards that Almighty Being to whose service and honour the edifice is dedicated, as well as to enchain the attention to the scriptural motto inscribed upon the north portal—“Reverence my Sanctuary.”
The nave is separated from the side aisles by five arches: two, which on each side join the tower, are in the pure style of the 14th century, and delicately lined with deep mouldings resting on clustered columns, and exhibit very distinctly the taste which prevailed in engrafting the more elegant pointed upon the massy Anglo-Norman style; the former, it will be clearly seen, have been formed out of the original semi-circular arches, similar to the three eastward, which rest on short thick round pillars (16½ feet in circumference) of the plainest Norman character. Above these is a story of smaller arches in the same style, now filled up, but which evidently shew that it was the intention of the monastery to assimilate them to the style adopted in the side windows of the tower and western portion of the nave: the alteration, however, was not completed.
The pointed arch opposite the north porch is partly filled by a skreen, the remnant of a small chantry chapel which formerly occupied this portion of the church. This skreen is adorned with a series of foliated niches once enriched with sculpture.
The ceiling of the church is painted in imitation of an oak ribbed roof, ornamented with flowers, the intersections of the ribs being finished with bosses, and the interstices with quatrefoils. A lofty beautiful pointed arch, 52 feet high, springing from richly moulded imposts divides the tower from the nave, by which the whole front of the great western window is displayed. This window is filled with a series of armorial bearings in stained glass, restored in 1814 at the expence and under the direction of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, M.A. from a drawing in the Heralds’ College.
First row: 1. Beauchamp; 2. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; 3. King Richard the Second; 4. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; 5. Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; 6. Stafford.
Second row: 7. Audley; 8. Clare; 9. B. a lion rampant O. (the arms of the monastery); 10. Barry of twelve, A. and S.
Third row: 11. Mortimer Earl of March; 12. Fitzalan and Warren.
Fourth row: 13. Montague; 14. Boteler of Wem; 15. Ufford Earl of Suffolk; 16. B. on a bend A. three escallops S.
Fifth row: 17. Warren Earl of Surrey; 18, 19, 20. B. a lion rampant within a bordure O. (probably intended for the three Norman Earls of Shrewsbury); 21. Blundeville Earl of Chester; 22. Sir Philip de Burnell.
Sixth row: 23. England and France quarterly; 24. John of Hainault; 25. Strange of Blackmere; 26. Strange of Knockin; 27. Lisle; 28. Mortimer Earl of March; 29. Arundel and Warren; 30. France semée and England; 31. Arundel and Maltravers; 32. Corbet; 33. Albini; 34. Latimer; 35. Roger de Montgomery; 36. Sir Simon de Burley impaling Stafford; which last bearings will probably fix the date when the original window was put up, viz. about the 12th of King Richard the Second.