Lydd Church

64 LYDD CHURCH. is a continuation of the string-course that runs round the sanctuary and the chancel-chapels. Here and there in the nave it has been renewed, probably when the later windows were inserted. Other evidence is to be seen in the 13th-century character of the little light built into the blocking of the central arch of the Saxon portion of the N aisle.1 It is fairly certain that similar httle windows were then placed in the other two arches, and it is only reasonable to assume that they were intended to give light to the two westernmost bays of an aisle built at the same time. It is probable that the Saxon basihca was no longer in use : perhaps it had fallen into ruin: certainly its N aisle had been demolished. Again: a nave of only four bays is too short for a church of such importance and of so great a breadth; and it postulates an awkward and unusual position for a N door, in the first bay of the aisle, quite close to the W end. Lastly: not only is the E.Engl. date of the W responds of the arcades, previously mentioned, shown by the form of bases and capitals and by the material (Caenstone and Upper Greensand stone2) and the character of the tooling, but close inspection has convinced me that they occupy their original position : they exhibit none of the usual signs of removal and rebuilding. Thus there is an accumulation of evidence in favour of the view that, in spite of the later character of the three western arches of the nave-arcades, the lines of the existing church with its nave of seven bays are those of the 13th-century building. Passing on to consider the significance of the remarkable irregularity of the hnes of this E.Engl. church, let us look at the facts as presented by the plan. A striking feature is the gradual increase in the width of the nave from W to E. At the W end the width is 18J f t . ; at the third column it is 20 ft. ; at the E end, from the 6th column eastwards, it is 20 ft. 3 ins. Furthermore, the arcades do not run in straight 1 See the elevation in Plate 3 (fig. 4). 2 Known as ' firestone,' quarried in the neighbourhood of Reigate and Godstone, Surrey, and widely used in Kent in the 13th century.