Horsmonden Church

ClV To the Editor, " ARCHEOLOGU. CANTU.NA." HORSMONDEN CHURCH. DEAR Sm, Since our Society's visit to Horsmonden in 1907, at which I hazarded an explanation of the two rood-turrets on the same side of the building, Dr. Francis Gmyling, of Sittingbourne, has been kind enough to go and examine the Church at my request, and I too have had the opportunity of paying a second visit there in April last. As a result of his resea.rches Di•, Grayling kindly sent HORSMO􀀎DEN CHURCH. CV me a full report, a summary of which, embodying my own more recent investigations in detail, I here subjoin with his authority, in the hope that you may find space to publish his valuable and expert elucidation. I need not say I entirely agree with Dr. Grayling, though he disposes of my former theory on the subject as completely as he disposes of that of the late Canon Scott. Robertson, Yours faithfully, AYMER VALLANCE. HoRSMOND:BN.-This Church presents the remarkable phenomenon of two rood-stair turrets, not at opposite sides of the building, but both on the same side, the south aisle wall. One of them occupies a normal position, in line with tl1e chancel arch; the other stands at a distance 0£ one bay to the west of the first. named. Externally both turrets are polygonal in plan, and are capped with polygonal lean-to roofs 0£ ashlar, the apex of which rises to within a little of the top of the aisle pat·apet. The turrets correspond in spacing with the buttresses. They are, in £act, structurally built in with the latter, and so much in bulk of the buttress is occupied by the turret that what of buttress there is to project berond the southward face of the turret is a mere pilaster strip. Each turret is lit by one narrow window-slit, glazed. The entrance to the eastern rood-stair is in the south wall of the south chancel aisle. The doorway, surrounded by a hollow bevel, is 2 feet wide by 6 feet 10 inches high to the crown of its four-centred arch. The turret internally is polygonal. The stair emerges at a height of 7 feet 9 inches above the nave floor-level, 1 foot 9 inches to west of the entrance, and at the eastern extremity of the south wall of the nave aisle. The upper doorway is 1 foot 8 inches wide by 6 feet 4½ inches high to the crown of its four-centred arch. There is no sign of door nor hangers. Thence the rood-passage spanned the (8 feet 1 inch wide) aisle to the easternmost spandrel of the south arcade of the nave. The south pier 0£ the chancel arch was then tunnelled through to provide a way on to the rood-loft proper across the 25-foet wide nave. The tunnel is blocked, but the doorway, a recess 8 inches deep, remains in the north wall 0£ the south aisle. The entrance measures 16½ inches wide by 5 feet 7t inches high, under a horizontal lintel of stone, badly cracked. At the foot of the doorway a stone corbel, 25 inches in length, and projecting 5 inches from the wall, was voL, :i::n-rn. li cvi HORSMONDRN CHURCH. fixed, at a height of 8 feet above the nave floor, to carry the gangway of the southern division of the loft. The passage entered the pier in a northerly direction, but the chancel-arch abutment on tlie other side prevented its advallce through the pier in a direct line. The passage coutinued, therefore, with a tum to the ldt, emerging westwards on to the rood-loft. The exact point of issue cannot now be determined, owing to subeque11t stopping up and rebuilding. The masonr_v here has been much disturbed, 11.ud the fact of the stone lintel being cracked points to a violent dislocation having occurred. The whole pier, weakened by the reek loss boring through of the roodpMsagc, was unable to bear the thrust of the eastern abutment of the nave's south arcade, aud bulged toward the east. Indeed, it is clear that the stability of this part of the fabric was found to be so seriously endangered that the only way to save it from collapse was to refill the tunnel with solid masonry again, apparently within a very short time after it had been hollowed. Under these circumstances, the period having come when a rood-loft was an indispensable adjunct of Divine services, a fresh arrangement bad to be adoptetl without delay-an arrangement that involved the erection of a second rood-st!lir on a different site. The earlier one, though abandoned, was left standing, but it might just as well 11ave been taken down when no longer wanted. Perhaps the parishioners pref"erre