St Marys Burton Latimer

INTERNAL

Internal
On entering the church you become aware of the considerable Norman remains from the 12th Century.

The nave, which has six and a half bays, is of two periods, and doubtless extended further west than at present.


The seventh bay westward forms a flying buttress to the tower. The three pillars with the half bay are Norman in design.


Pillars
All three pillars on the south side are cylindrical with square cushion shaped capitals supporting semicircular arches, but the piers and arches on the north side are different from these and each from the other.


The first pier is cylindrical, the second is square with semicircles attached to the sides, and has an elegant foliated capital.


The third is square with the angles rebated and with shafts in the hollows. On the west side a semicircle had been added as a respond to the preceding pier and the two angle shafts towards the aisle terminate in caps at little more than half the length of the piers.

The first and second arches are pointed, the third is semicircular. The remaining piers north and south are late Early English. The transition is interesting for whilst the third arch on either side springs from a Norman pier on the west, it rests on an Early English pier to its east : the arch itself being Norman. On the south side this inconsistency is displayed most strikingly for the arch supported on both Early English and Norman piers is decidedly Norman in character.


One authority contends that this proves that the piers in the nave that are Early English have not been cut out of Norman piers, but that the church eastwards was either rebuilt or of a different date, and at the place where the old and new structures join, an arch on either side has been under-built.


There seems little doubt that the church was built entirely in the Norman style with narrow windows and probably an apse at the east end where the present Early English style begins. There is evidence of other arches at right angles to the nave arcade which would have spanned the north and south aisles. This suggests that the church was originally cruciform in shape and had north and south transepts.

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