DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6912#0029
20
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
the ruins, and employed in erecting some buildings on the farm. It is very satis-
factory to observe, that this has, in the main, been done in the least injurious manner.
What was wanted, has been procured by digging up the buried parts. As these are
already crushed and reduced to manageable forms, it was probably found easier to
use them, than to demolish large masses. But whatever might be the motive, the
result is, that the antiquary has only to lament the destruction of one fragment of a
prostrate pier of the nave, decorated on its sides with Norman chevron-work. This
perhaps offered a strong temptation, as the hewn stone would be easily brought off
by a few blows of a pick-axe. The clearing away of this buried rubbish, has not
only not destroyed any fracture of antiquity, but it has incidentally served to illus-
trate several.
Some part of the area of the lady-chapel having been cleared, it appears that my
measurement, taken by stepping over the ruins, was not correct. The length of it
was thirty feet, the breadth little more than twenty; a much better proportion than
I had supposed.
In the north aile of the presbytery, the base and a small part of the shaft of a
three-fourth column, inserted in the wall, have been brought to light, and confirm
the supposition that this part of the church was rebuilt in the thirteenth century.
The part which has been called the kitchen, exhibits a confirmation of that con-
jecture ; some masonry has been uncovered, which appears to have been two small
stove-chimneys or flues.
In the description of the prior's chapel, it is said, that the partition between that
room and the adjoining one is entirely of wood: this is inaccurate. The spaces
between the studs are filled up with a very hard sort of mortar, which makes a very
even surface, and the whole is in a perfectly sound state.
Severely as the conventual church of Castle-Acre has suffered from time and
weather, so many traces have been noticed, of the external and internal finishing of
its walls, columns, arches, and vaulting, that a pretty correct idea may be formed of
its perfect state. Of the pavement, no part is now visible; but it seems worth
mentioning, that about twenty years ago, several feet of it were uncovered, and it
was found to consist of those small square bricks, which are not at all uncommon
in ancient churches, and which were used from a very early to the latest period of
our ecclesiastical architecture. This information I had from the Rev. James
Thom, under whose direction the search was made. He was some time vicar,
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
the ruins, and employed in erecting some buildings on the farm. It is very satis-
factory to observe, that this has, in the main, been done in the least injurious manner.
What was wanted, has been procured by digging up the buried parts. As these are
already crushed and reduced to manageable forms, it was probably found easier to
use them, than to demolish large masses. But whatever might be the motive, the
result is, that the antiquary has only to lament the destruction of one fragment of a
prostrate pier of the nave, decorated on its sides with Norman chevron-work. This
perhaps offered a strong temptation, as the hewn stone would be easily brought off
by a few blows of a pick-axe. The clearing away of this buried rubbish, has not
only not destroyed any fracture of antiquity, but it has incidentally served to illus-
trate several.
Some part of the area of the lady-chapel having been cleared, it appears that my
measurement, taken by stepping over the ruins, was not correct. The length of it
was thirty feet, the breadth little more than twenty; a much better proportion than
I had supposed.
In the north aile of the presbytery, the base and a small part of the shaft of a
three-fourth column, inserted in the wall, have been brought to light, and confirm
the supposition that this part of the church was rebuilt in the thirteenth century.
The part which has been called the kitchen, exhibits a confirmation of that con-
jecture ; some masonry has been uncovered, which appears to have been two small
stove-chimneys or flues.
In the description of the prior's chapel, it is said, that the partition between that
room and the adjoining one is entirely of wood: this is inaccurate. The spaces
between the studs are filled up with a very hard sort of mortar, which makes a very
even surface, and the whole is in a perfectly sound state.
Severely as the conventual church of Castle-Acre has suffered from time and
weather, so many traces have been noticed, of the external and internal finishing of
its walls, columns, arches, and vaulting, that a pretty correct idea may be formed of
its perfect state. Of the pavement, no part is now visible; but it seems worth
mentioning, that about twenty years ago, several feet of it were uncovered, and it
was found to consist of those small square bricks, which are not at all uncommon
in ancient churches, and which were used from a very early to the latest period of
our ecclesiastical architecture. This information I had from the Rev. James
Thom, under whose direction the search was made. He was some time vicar,