George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted PapersStreet, George Edmund
History
George Edmund Street: Unpublished Notes and Reprinted Papers
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic; Church architecture -- Europe; Europe -- Description and travel; Street, George Edmund, 1824-1881
The exterior of the church is exceedingly simple. There are doors at
the west end and in the west bay of the north aisle. In front of the
former there was a groined porch, of which a small portion of the
springer for the groining on one side only remains; this was brought
to light by the removal of a brick porch which had been erected in its
place. The string-course above the door is of the thirteenth century,
but the window above it of three lights, and three other windows of
two lights in the western bays of the aisles, are of the fourteenth
century, and the work, probably, of Bishop Haymo de Hethe. The north
aisle door is remarkable for its rich detail and peculiar character.
One of the orders is adorned with a chevron on one face and with
dogteeth on the other, and the inner order is enriched with a rose. The
dogteeth and the carving of the rose are quite consistent in character
with the date of the church, and the chevron is no doubt a curious
instance of imitation of earlier work, rather than evidence of the
doorway itself being earlier than the rest of the church. The dogteeth
are well developed, and the roses are similar in character to those in
the internal jambs and arches of the transept doors at Westminster. The
windows in the side walls of the aisles are all alike on the exterior,
simply chamfered with labels over them, save the western window of the
south aisle, where there is no label. Those at the east ends of the
aisles are more important; that to the east of the north aisle being
of four lights, and that to the east of the south aisle of two lights.
The buttresses are very simple, of two stages in height, with plain
weatherings. The north chancel aisle is the Wilshyre chantry, a late
third-pointed work, with a battlemented parapet. The erection of this
chapel involved the removal of one of the chancel buttresses, and in
place of it a very bold flying buttress was erected, which spans the
roof of the chapel, and adds much to the picturesque effect of this
side of the church. Its erection in the fifteenth century was good
proof, in the absence of any other, that at that time at any rate the
groined roof of the chancel was standing, for otherwise its erection
would never have been required. The removal of the high, tiled, lean-to
roof of the Wilshyre chantry has exposed the flying buttress, the fine
east window of the north aisle, and the still finer window in the
north wall, restored, as I have said, in exact accordance with the
window which I was so happy as to find there. The vestry, which forms
a continuation of the north chancel aisle, is lighted with two small
windows, with ogee trefoiled heads. It was a roofless ruin, but now
it has been re-roofed, and, as well as the chantry, is covered with a
lead flat roof, which seems to have been the original covering, and
has the advantage of not concealing any portion of the chancel. The
east window is new, of three lights, corresponding in all respects with
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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