About 1180, or a few years later, aisles were added to the nave. To this work belong the two eastern responds already mentioned, and the three beautiful clustered columns on either side between them and the chancel-screen. These columns are of that type, in which the shafts, although approaching the detachment and individual emphasis of each member which are the great features of early Gothic art, have not yet wholly broken away from their absorption by the main mass of stonework. That mass, however, has acquired grace and slenderness without losing strength; the pier, adequate to the weight it has to bear, has taken the place of the shafted mass of wall, the bearing power of which was out of proportion to its real function. The carving of the capitals, too, marks the Transitional character of the work. The respond of the north arcade has a carved capital of distinctly late Norman character. As we go eastward, this conventional arabesque sculpture disappears, and foliage, at first here and there, then altogether, takes its place.[68] The carving of the capitals of the south arcade was evidently begun after the north arcade was completed, and only one of them was finished. These piers were connected by semicircular arches, the lower voussoirs of which were in some cases retained as springing-points for the pointed arches which we see at present. These later arches, with their acute points, led to the blocking of the round-headed clerestory windows, the openings of one or two of which may be traced in the wall above. This new arcade was not built, as was so common, by taking the old church walls gradually to pieces and building piers and arches in specially made gaps and breaches; but the older walls seem to have been taken down, and the arcades built, as has been noted, slightly within their line. The east responds of the arcade are gone altogether, owing to the later widening of the eastern bay; and of the aisles which were now added to the church it is difficult to premise anything but this, that they were in all likelihood about half as broad as the present aisles, if as much, and were covered by lean-to roofs, abutting on the nave walls below the clerestory. The earlier chancel, and, if there was one, the central tower (a little to the east of centre), were probably left unaltered.