Chancel, Stanton St. John, Oxon, c. A.D. 1320.
The choir of this church is an excellent example of the Decorated style, especially the east window. It is merely a parish church, not monastic.
The name of the Edwardian style is sometimes given to this second Gothic style, which Rickman justly called Decorated. The name of Edwardian implies the reigns of the three Edwards, and is convenient for England, but does not apply anywhere else, which is the objection to its general use.
The Porches are sometimes shallow; others have a very bold projection, as at Kidlington; sometimes with windows or open arcades at the sides, and, though rarely, with a room over: there are also many fine timber porches of this style, distinguished by the moldings and barge-boards, as at Aldham, Essex. These wooden porches are common in some districts, as in Herefordshire, and rare in others. There are good examples at Binfield and Long Wittenham, Berkshire, although that is not one of the districts in which they are commonly met with.
There is frequently a niche over the outer doors, or door into the church from the porch; this was for the patron-saint. Occasionally, but rarely, there are remains of a wooden gallery in that position, supposed to have been for the choir-boys to stand when part of the marriage-ceremony was performed in the porch. There is frequently a staircase at the corner of the porch next the church, to ascend to the room over.
Kidlington, Oxon, c. A.D. 1350.
This porch is a good typical example of the outer doorway with the ball-flower ornament in the hollow molding, and the niche over it for the figure of the patron-saint.