In course of time, decay, neglect and restoration will deprive our ancient buildings of every visible stone of original work which they possess, and careful records of this kind, written, photographed and sketched, may be of the highest possible value to future generations of historians and architects, long after the objects themselves have ceased to exist. The work in itself is of absorbing interest, and the more one studies these works of past ages the stronger becomes the conviction that our old buildings, whether cathedral, castle or simple village church, are the landmarks of the nation's history, and a priceless inheritance of beauty and art the conservation of which is the duty of all generations.
The principal points to be noted are—1. The name of the church. 2. Its situation. 3. Its dedication. 4. General plan. 5. The style of architecture to which each portion belongs. 6. Any peculiarity of the architecture, blocked up windows, etc. 7. Any ancient furniture, screens, bench-ends, glass. 8. Any monuments, tablets, or mural paintings. 9. Church plate, bells, registers. 10. Any local traditions. The record should be made somewhat in the following manner.
The church of — — is prettily situated on rising ground some quarter of a mile north of the village, and on the main road to — — . It is approached by a picturesque timber lych-gate, and consists of nave, aisles and chancel, having a side chapel to the north and a single transept to the south. At the west end is a Decorated tower and spire. There are two porches, one on the north side and the other on the west, which last has a niche for a figure over the doorway and seats on either side. The nave is Perpendicular, as is the greater part of the rest of the fabric. Above the nave rises a lofty and noble clerestory, divided from the aisles by five rather obtusely-pointed arches supported by richly moulded piers with small moulded capitals. Each bay of the clerestory contains two three-light windows of late Perpendicular date. The roof is flat pitched and is of oak, the principals are adorned with panelled tracery and show vestiges of ancient colour decoration. The windows of the aisles are late Decorated in style; they are of three lights, the traceries elegant and richly moulded. The east window is Perpendicular and is much sub-divided by mullions and transoms; in the upper portions are some heraldic coats of arms, which appear to have formed part of a much earlier window. The chancel is divided from the nave by a fine open oak screen, coeval with the larger part of the building. It is richly carved and gilded, and in the right-hand side of the chancel arch are the steps which formerly led up to the top of it. The chancel, together with its chapel, is vaulted in stone with well marked ribs and carved bosses. The transept, late Perpendicular, opens into the south side of the nave by a four-centred arch, and has a rich flat ceiling. In the chancel is a piscina of Early English date, together with a sedilia of the same period. On the north side of the chancel, resting on the floor, is a cross-legged effigy, in chain mail, surcoat, etc., and bearing on his left arm a shield, but all much mutilated. There is a local tradition that it represents Sir ——, but there is no evidence by which he can be identified. Features of the church are the many highly carved bench ends, all in oak, representing a great variety of subjects, such as dragons, serpents, etc., while a few bear the arms of local families who probably bore the cost of the work. The pulpit is Jacobean, and has no special feature. The font, which stands in the centre of the nave, is square in form and is supported by a modern round plinth. It is constructed of marble, the four sides being carved in low relief with intersecting patterns. It is possibly of Norman date, and is the only existing feature of a much earlier church. The tower and spire are Decorated; the latter is of stone with four pinnacles at the base, and has a little coronal of pinnacles. The belfry windows are arranged in pairs on each side of the tower. The tower or western window is of five lights, richly Decorated in style.
| Key to Diagram of the Interior Elevation of a Bay of a Church. Clerestory. 26 Boss. 25 Vaulting Rib. 24 Vault. 23 Vaulting Rib. 22 Tracery of C. Window. 21 Clerestory Window. 20 Sill of Clerestory Window. 19 Base of Jamb, C. Arch. 18 Jamb of C. Arch. 17 Clerestory String. Blind Storey (Triforium). 16 Capital of Vaulting Shaft. 15 Tracery of Triforium. 14 Triforium Arch. 13 Capital of T. Pier. 12 Pier of Triforium. 11 Triforium String. Ground Storey. 10 Tracery of Aisle Window. 9 Aisle Window. 8 Sill of Aisle Window. 7 Wall Arcade. 6 Vaulting Shaft. 5 Corbel. 4 Pier Arch. 3 Capital of Pier. 2 Pier. 1 Base of Pier. |
APPENDIX.
A GLOSSARY OF THE PRINCIPAL TERMS USED
IN ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.
| ABACUS | Derived from the Greek Abax—a tray or flat board, an essential feature of the Grecian and Roman orders, but now used to describe the slab forming theupper part of a column, pier, etc. |
| ABBEY | A term for a union of ecclesiastical buildings, for the housing of those conventual bodies presided over by an abbot or abbess, supposed to be derived from the Hebrew ab, "father." |
| ACANTHUS | A plant, the leaves of which are represented in the capitals of the Corinthian orders. |
| AISLE | French aile, a wing, the lateral division of a church. |
| ALMONRY | A room where alms were distributed. |
| ALTAR | An elevated table dedicated to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and usually called the Communion Table. |
| ALMERY, AUMERY, and AUMBREY | A recess or small cupboard in the wall of a church, used to contain the chalices, patens, etc., for the use of the priest. They are sometimes near the piscina, but are usually on the opposite side of the chancel. |
| ANTE-CHAPEL | The outer part of a chapel. |
| APSE | The semi-circular or polygonal recess at the east end of the choir or aisles of a church. |
| ARCADE | A series of arches, open or closed with masonry, and supported by columns or piers. |
| ARCH | A construction of bricks or stones so placed as by mutual pressure to support each other and a superincumbent weight. They may be semi-circular, segmental, elliptical, stilted, horse-shoe, pointed, trefoiled, cinquefoiled, or ogee |
| ARCHITRAVE | In classical architecture, the lowest division of the entablature resting immediately on the abacus of the capital. In Gothic buildings the ornamental mouldings round the openings of doors, windows, etc. |
| ARCHIVOLT | The under surface of the curve of an arch, from impost to impost. |
| ASHLAR | Shaped or squared stone used in building, as distinguished from that in the rough. |
| ASTRAGAL | A small semi-circular bead or moulding. |
| BALL FLOWER | An ornament resembling a ball in a circular flower with three enclosing petals. Dec. |
| BASE | The lower member of a column, pier, or wall. |
| BASILICA | A Roman law-court. Early Christian churches when built on the same lines were called by the same name. |
| BILLET | An ornament much used in Norman work and formed by cutting a moulding in notches, so that the remaining parts resembled wooden billets or pieces of stick. |
| BLIND STOREY | See Triforium. |
| BOSSES | Ornamental projections usually of foliage and placed at the intersection of the ribs of vaults, ceilings, etc. |
| BRACES | Timbers which brace or support the main rafters. Also called struts. |
| BROACH | A spire, generally octagonal and springing from the square top of the tower, without a parapet. (See page [105]). |
| BUTTRESS | A projection from a wall, giving it additional strength. |
| CANOPY | In Gothic architecture an ornamental hood or projection over doors, windows, niches, tombs, etc., and rarely found except in the Dec. and Perp. styles. |
| CAPITAL | The head of a column or pilaster, found in a great variety of shapes. |
| CATHEDRAL | A church presided over by a Bishop. The principal church of a diocese. |
| CHALICE | The cup used for the wine at the celebration of the Eucharist. |
| CHAMFER | The surface formed by cutting away the rectangular edge of wood or stone work. |
| CHANCEL | The choir or eastern part of a church, appropriated to the use of those who officiate in the performance of the services. |
| CHANTRY | A chapel often containing a tomb of the founder, and in which masses were said. |
| CHAPEL | A small building attached to cathedrals and large churches. |
| CHAPTER-HOUSE | The room where the Dean and Prebendaries meet for the transaction of business. |
| CHEVRON | An ornament characteristic of the Norman period and divided into several equal portions chevron-wise or zig-zag. |
| CHOIR | That part of a church to the east of the nave where the services are celebrated, also called chancel, and frequently separated from the nave by an open screen of stone or wood. |
| CINQUEFOIL | An ornamental foliation used in arches, tracery, etc., and composed of projecting points or cusps, so arranged that the opening resembles five leaves. |
| CLERESTORY | Possibly the clear storey. An upper storey standing above or clear of the adjacent roofs, and pierced by windows to give increased light. |
| CLOISTER | A covered walk or ambulatory forming part of a cathedral or college quadrangle. |
| CLUSTERED COLUMN | A pier made up of several columns or shafts in a cluster. |
| COLONNADE | A row or rows of columns supporting a roof or building |
| CORBEL | Usually a moulded or carved ornament projecting from the walls, acting as a bracket and capable of bearing a super-incumbent weight. |
| CORNICE | The horizontal termination of a building in the form of a moulded projection. |
| COURSE | A continuous and regular line of stones or bricks in the wall of a building. |
| CROCKETS | Projecting ornaments in the form of leaves, flowers, etc., used to embellish the angles of pinnacles, spires, gables, canopies, etc. |
| CROSS | The accepted symbol of the Christian religion and an architectural church ornament usually placed upon the apex of the gable. A large cross called a rood was at one time always placed over the entrance to the chancel. The cross was worn as a personal ornament ages before the Christian era by the Assyrians, and we are told that the Druids also used this symbol in very early times. |
| CRYPT | Sometimes called the Undercroft, a vaulted chamber, usually underground and in, churches, rarely extending beyond the area of the choir or chancel, and often of less dimensions. |
| CUSPS | Projecting points giving the foliated appearance to tracery, arches, panels, etc. |
| DORMER | A gabled window pierced through a sloping roof. |
| DRIPSTONE | A projecting ledge or narrow moulding over the heads of doorways, windows, etc., to carry off the rain. |
| FAN-TRACERY | Tracery in which the ribs form a fan-like appearance and diverge equally in every direction. (Peculiar to the late Perp.) |
| FLAMBOYANT | Tracery whereof the curves assume flame-like waves and shapes. |
| FLYING BUTTRESS | A buttress in the form of a bridge, usually transferring the thrust of the main roof from the clerestory walls to the main or aisle buttresses |
| FONT | The vessel for holding the consecrated water used in baptism. |
| GARGOYLE | A projecting spout usually grotesquely carved and used to throw the water from the roof well away from the building. |
| GROIN | The line of intersection in vaulted roofs. |
| IMPOST | Horizontal mouldings, capping a column or pier, from which the arch springs. |
| JAMB | The side of a window or door. |
| KEYSTONE | The central stone at the top of an arch. The bosses in vaulted ceilings are frequently called keys. |
| LADY CHAPEL | A chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, called "Our Lady." |
| LANTERN | A small structure or erection surmounting a dome or tower to admit light. These towers are known as Lantern Towers. |
| LOZENGE | A name given in modern times to Norman mouldings which partake of a lozenge formation. |
| LYCH-GATE | From the Anglo-Saxon lich, a corpse. A small and often picturesque shelter at the entrance to a churchyard. |
| MINSTER | The church usually of a monastery or abbey or one to which such has been an appendant. York and Beverley, however, are exceptions to this rule. |
| MISERERE | A small bracket on the undersides of the seats of stalls. |
| MOULDING | A term generally applied to the contours given to angle projections or hollows of arches, doors, windows, etc. |
| MULLION | The dividing bars of stone or wood between the lights of windows, or the openings of screens. |
| MÜNSTER (MONASTERY) | has now lost its simple application. |
| NAVE | From navis, a ship, the main body of a church west of the chancel. |
| NICHE | An alcove or recess in a wall for holding a statue or ornament. |
| OGEE | A moulding or arch formed of a curve or curves somewhat like the letter S, the curve of contra-flexure, part being concave and part convex. |
| ORDERS | In Gothic architecture, the receding mouldings of an arch. |
| PARCLOSE | The screen or railings protecting a monument or chantry. |
| PARVISE | An open space or porch at the entrance to a church, and often wrongly applied to the room over a church porch. |
| PATEN | The small plate or salver used to hold the Consecrated Bread in the celebration of the Eucharist. |
| PENDANT | Ornaments which hang or depend from a ceiling or roof. |
| PENTHOUSE | A covering projecting over a door, window, etc., as a protection from the weather. |
| PIER | The masses or clusters of masonry between doors, windows, etc.; the supports from which arches spring. |
| PILLAR | A term frequently confounded with column, but differing from it in not being subservient to the rules of classical architecture, and in not of necessity consisting of a single circular shaft. |
| PINNACLE | A small turreted ornament tapering towards the top, and used as a termination to many parts of Gothic architecture. |
| PISCINA | The stone basin or sink in the chancel used for cleansing the communion vessels. |
| PLINTH | The lower division of the base of a column, pier or wall. |
| POPPY-HEAD | An ornament boldly carved on the tops of bench ends, etc. |
| PRESBYTERY | A term sometimes used to include the whole of the choir, but more often meant to refer to the eastern end of the choir from which it is generally raised by several steps. |
| QUARRIES or QUARRELS | The small diamond, square or other shaped panes used in plain glazing. |
| QUATREFOIL | The shape resembling four leaves formed in tracery or panels by cusps. |
| QUOIN | The external angle of a building, generally of ashlar. |
| REREDOS | The wall or screen at the back of an altar, often enriched with carving, niches, statues, etc. |
| ROOD-BEAM or ROOD-LOFT | The loft or beam which, previous to the Reformation, supported the Great Rood, or Crucifix. |
| ROSE WINDOW | A term often used to denote a circular window of several lights. |
| ROTUNDA | A term used to describe a church or other building which is of circular formation both within and without. |
| SACRISTRY | A room used in churches for storing the plate and valuables. |
| SANCTUARY | See Presbytery. |
| SEDILIA | A seat or seats, generally canopied and situated on the south side of the chancel and used in pre-Reformation days by the officiating clergy during the pauses in the mass. |
| SHAFT | The part of a column or pillar between the capital and the base. |
| SHRINE | Often called the feretory. The place where relics were deposited. |
| SOFFIT | The word means literally a ceiling, but is generally used to describe the flat under-surface of arches, cornices, stairways, etc. |
| SPANDRELS | The spaces between the arch of a doorway or window and the rectangular mouldings over it. Early tracery originated from the piercing of the spandrels of windows. |
| SPIRE | The acutely pointed termination of towers, etc., originating by the elongation of the early pyramidal roofs. |
| SPLAY | The slanting or sloped surface of a window opening in the thickness of the wall, also of doorways, etc.; the term is also applied to bevels and other sloped surfaces. |
| SPRINGER | See Voussoir. |
| SQUINT | An oblique opening or slit in the wall of a church, for the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles or transepts to see the elevation of the Host at the High Altar. They are mostly found on the sides of the chancel arch, and are frequently called hagioscopes. |
| STOUP | A vessel for consecrated water, at or near the entrance to a church. |
| STRING or STRING COURSE. | A horizontal projecting band of stone in the wall of a building. |
| STRUT | See Brace. |
| TOOTH ORNAMENT | An ornament used almost exclusively in the E.E. style, resembling a square four-leaved flower, and thought to be based on the dog-tooth violet. |
| TRANSOM | A horizontal cross-bar in a panel or window. |
| TRACERY | The ornamental stonework in the upper part of a window; when formed by the mullions it is called bar tracery and when the spandrel is pierced, plate tracery. Also used largely on tombs, screens, doorways, etc. |
| TRANSEPTS | The projecting arms of a cruciform church, often wrongly called "cross-aisles." |
| TRANSITION | A term used to describe the process of change from one style of architecture to another. The three great periods of transition are from the Romanesque and Norman to the Early English; the Early English to the Decorated, and the Decorated to the Perpendicular. |
| TREFOIL | An ornamental foliation in the heads of windows, panels, etc., in which the spaces formed by the cusps resemble three leaves. |
| TRIFORIUM | or Blind-Storey. An open gallery arcade without windows immediately above the pier arcade and under the roof of the aisle. |
| TYMPANUM | The space between the top of a square-headed door and the arch above it; frequently sculptured. |
| VAULT | Roofing of stone constructed on the principle of the arch, the intersections of which are termed groins and are in the pointed styles usually ribbed. |
| VAULTING SHAFTS | Small shafts sometimes rising from the floor, sometimes from the capital of a pillar and sometimes from a corbel, and intended as supports for the ribs of a vault. |
| VESICA PISCIS | An oval shape or figure formed by two equal circles cutting each other in their centres. Very commonly found on episcopal and monastic seals. |
| VOUSSOIR | The wedge-shaped stones forming an arch, the centre one of which is the keystone and those at the impost or starting point of the curve are the springers. |
| ZIG-ZAG | See Chevron. |