The Historical Growth of the English Parish ChurchThompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
History
The Historical Growth of the English Parish Church
Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
Church architecture -- England
There are stone chantry chapels in the north and south arches of the
chancel at Newark--the chantry chapel of Thomas Meyring (1500) on the
north, and that of Robert Markham (1505) on the south. These chapels
recall prior King's chapel at Bath abbey, the Warre chapel at Boxgrove
priory, and other small independent structures, like some of the tomb
chapels which form a ring round the apse at Tewkesbury. Most of these
chapels beneath arches were no doubt covered, like prior Leishman's
tomb at Hexham, with wooden canopies, which have now disappeared. At
Burford in Oxfordshire, however, there is, in the east arch of the
north arcade, a small chapel with a wooden tester and upright posts:
the sides are panelled up to a certain height. The whole structure has
been well restored and is still used.
§ 20. Some small chantry chapels form transeptal projections in unusual
parts of the building: thus, at Sherburn-in-Elmet, St Botolph's,
Cambridge, and Kewstoke, Somerset, such chapels project from the
south wall of the nave next the porch. Indeed, the variety in the
position of chantry chapels often invests the churches of the west of
England with a charm which is not always possessed by more regular
buildings. Churches like Beverstone in Gloucestershire, Croscombe
in Somerset, and Sherston Magna in Wiltshire, are full of little
surprises for anyone to whom variations in plan appeal. Perhaps the
most attractive surprise of this kind is at Long Melford in Suffolk.
On the south side of the chancel, opening out of the Martin chapel, is
a vestry, which communicates with another building at right angles to
it, behind the east wall of the chancel. From this building there is
a doorway into the lady chapel, which thus stands detached from the
body of the church. The chapel is a nearly square building, with three
external gables: internally, there is a central square space, entirely
surrounded by an aisle or ambulatory. At Boston there is a chantry
chapel, forming a short extra aisle, west of the south porch; while
at Witney, there is one west of the north porch. Sometimes, the whole
of an aisle of the nave, east of the main entrance of the church, was
screened off as a chantry chapel. There are instances of this at Croft
in Yorkshire, Hungerton in Leicestershire, and Stratton Strawless in
Norfolk. There are instances, again, in which, when a chantry chapel
was placed at the end of an aisle, its separate character from the
rest of the aisle was structurally defined. In Shropshire, at Alveley,
Cleobury Mortimer, Stottesdon, and one or two other places, one or more
chantry chapels have been formed by widening the eastern part of the
aisles in which the altars were placed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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