Nettlestead Church - Architectural Note

252 NETTLESTEAD CHURCH. tower) can only be surmised. In the opinion of the writer the reason is supplied by the unusually fine proportions of the nave-windows. No other possible reason suggests itself, unless it be that the old church was destroyed by an earthquake or a fire! An earthquake is improbable, and a fire does not usually destroy the walls of a church beyond the possibility of repair.* Dismissing those possibilities, one reflects further that the reason for rebuilding could scarcely have been a desire to enlarge the church. The reason which usually led to the enlargement of mediaeval parish churches was the necessity of making room for a larger number of clerks and a more elaborate ritual in choir and sanctuary, and for additional altars in nave. This was obtained by lengthening the old chancel, erecting sidechapels, and adding aisles to the old nave, more easily than by destruction and re-erection. In cases where, as at Maidstone and Eddington, rebuilding was preferred, at any time after the middle of the twelfth century, the new plan usually included aisles in which altars might be placed; but at Nettlestead the ground-plan and general arrangements were very much like what they must have been in the old churchf—the floor-space was very little larger and no aisles were added. We shall presently see proof that in the reconstruction the nave was erected before the chancel, whereas usually in the enlargement of medieval churches building operations began at the east end. Two facts call for special consideration and explanation—the absence of aisles and the commencement of the work in the nave. The nave-windows suggest the only explanation. The inclusion of aisles in a plan designed on so small a scale would not have given sufficient height for windows of so fine proportions. The nave was rebuilt for the express purpose of the erection of those windows. They might perhaps have been inserted in the old- walls; but the alteration would have * Southfleet and Selby are cases in point. t The nave measures 40 ft. by 26 ft. and the chancel 24 ft. by 16 ft. These proportions vary slightly from, the average yielded by the early-Norman ohurohes of the district. The nave is a little broader in relation to its length, and the chancel a little longer in relation to its width.