The Fronts, particularly the west fronts of Norman churches, are frequently of very fine composition, having generally deeply-recessed doorways, windows, and arcades, all covered with a profusion of ornament in the later period, as at Iffley, and at Nun-Monkton, p. 73.
The Apse has been already mentioned as a characteristic of the Norman style. In England it is more frequently used in early than in late work, and is found at the east ends of the chancel and its aisles, and on the east side of the transepts; being, in fact, the places for altars, which were afterwards continued in the same situations, but either merely under windows in a flat wall, or under arched recesses which frequently remain in the transept wall, and are sometimes erroneously described as doorways.
Cassington, Oxon.
This is a small parish church, with a Norman chancel vaulted, remaining perfect; the walls of the nave are also Norman. The spire is an addition, in the Decorated style of the fourteenth century. (See the plan of this church at [p. 39].)
The custom which has been mentioned of lengthening the churches eastwards, which commenced in the latter half of the twelfth century, was carried on vigorously in the thirteenth.
At Romsey there is an apse at the end of each of the aisles, not in the large central part.
Interior of a Norman Apse, Romsey Abbey, Hants, c. A.D. 1160.