Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/50



belfry is better adapted to a small village church than that which is supported by a single wall, as it saves much expense of material, and does not interfere with the simplicity of ground-plan desirable in an edifice of this description. Accordingly we find many instances of the plain flat bell-gable, sometimes standing over the chancel-arch, as at Skelton near York, and Binsey near Oxford, but more usually set upon the western wall, as at Northborough in Lincolnshire, and many other places. This kind of belfry has been much used in modern churches, though not often very successfully. As it is really no easy matter to design a good west front comprising a bell-gable, and the width required in our new churches much increases the difficulty, by placing the belfry over the chancel-arch, according to some of Mr. Pugin's designs, a more pleasing general outline may be obtained; but even in this case, when viewed from the north or south, the belfry will present to the spectator the mere end of a wall, and appear an unsightly excrescence to the building. I was therefore much pleased when my attention was called to some bell-turrets, which, standing like those above named, upon a single wall, yet present the appearance, on a small scale, of steeples whose substructure affects the ground-plan of the building: and I was fortunate in seeing these specimens in their right order, not perhaps as regards date, but according to their development in point of design and ornament.

The first of these is Harescomb in Gloucestershire; a church mentioned by Rickman as having a singular belfry at the east end of the nave, but with little or no