STYLES OF CHURCH ARCHITECTURE as shown in window-openings, arched doorways
SAXON about 700 to 1060 A.D.
Saxon architecture is very simple and often crude. Door and window spaces are small with triangular or semi-circular headings and little or no ornamentation. There are very few complete Saxon churches but many with remains of Saxon work.
NORMAN 1060 to 1190 A.D.
Massive and ponderous in character with great cylindrical pillars, semi-circular arches, immensely thick walls and narrow deeply splayed windows. The round-headed windows and doorways are sometimes lavishly decorated.
EARLY ENGLISH 1186 to 1280 A.D.
The simplest form of Gothic architecture. Light and graceful in style with pointed arches. Windows are lancet-headed, long and narrow, often grouped in pairs, triplets, fives and sometimes in sevens. Decorative circles are frequently introduced between the heads of the grouped windows. Mouldings are boldly cut. Pillars, more slender, are circular, octagonal or surrounded with detached shafts.
DECORATED 1272 to 1380 A.D.
Has developed into an elaborate, flowing style giving the impression of spaciousness and height. Windows are larger though less elongated and contain two to seven lights with geometrical or curvilinear tracery above them. Columns are longer and more slender with capitals decorated with richly sculptured foliage.
PERPENDICULAR 1380 to 1550 A.D.
The beauty of this style is created by the use of vertical, straight lines. The great windows are divided into rectangles by stone muilions which are carried right up into the head and the tracery is simplified. Arches are lower and flatter. The arched doorways are enclosed with a squareheaded hood, often with a simple decoration such as a shield or quatrefoil. Elaborate fan-tracery embellishes roofs and vaults.
RENAISSANCE 1550 to 1700 A.D.
The Reformation marked a break-away from medieval tradition and the revival of Classic scholarship — the Renaissance — brought to favour the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. Buildings were designed to follow certain definite laws of proportion and domes, pediments, entablatures, columns and a mass of detail are outstanding features.
A GLOSSARY OF CHURCH TERMS
Aisle. The division of a church parallel to the nave, choir or transept.
Ambulatory. A processional aisle round the back of the High Altar.
Altar. A table-like construction, usually of stone, used for the administration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Apse. A semi-circular or polygonal extension at the eastern end of the choir.
Aumbry, Almery or Aumery. A recess or small cupboard by the side of an altar, used to contain the altar vessels.
Bell-Cote. Generally on the east end of the nave gable. Formerly contained the sanctus bell rung during the mass at the Elevation of the Host,
Bench Ends. The ends of the wooden church seats, often richly carved, in the Middle Ages, sometimes with grotesque design.
Boss. A projecting mass, generally carved, at the intersection of the ribs of stone vaulted ceilings.
Brasses, Monumental. Flat, incised metal tablets showing a figure of the person commemorated, usually found on the floor.
Broach Spire. An octagonal spire rising from a square
tower which has no parapet.
Capital. The head of a column or pillar, found in a great
variety of shapes, either moulded, or partly moulded and partly carved.
Chancel. The choir or eastern part of a church, reserved for those who officiate in the services and often screened from the nave.
Chantry Chapel. An endowed chapel often containing the tomb of the founder, and in which Masses were said. The endowment for the chanting or saying of which is the chantry.
Chapel. Any part of a church having its own altar.
Churchyard Cross. Possibly more ancient than the church. Although many were destroyed in the seventeenth century, they are frequently seen, often restored.
Choir. Properly that part of the church containing the stalls for the singing or saying of the services.
Clear-Story or Clerestory. An upper storey standing above the aisle roof and pierced by windows.
Cloister. A covered walk generally forming part of a quadrangle.
The Principle Parts of a Church
Piscina. The stone basin, or drain, near an altar used for cleansing the Communion vessels, usually within a niche or projecting from the wall
Porch. The attached building protecting a doorway. Church porches are sometimes of two storeys, the upper one containing a room.
Presbytery. A term sometimes used to include the whole choir, but more often meant to refer to the space between the stalls and the sanctuary.
Pulpit. An enclosed platform or stage for the delivery of sermons.
Reredos. The wall or screen at the back of an altar, often enriched with carving, niches, statues, etc.
Rood-Beam, Rood-Loft, Rood-Screen. The beam which supported the rood (i.e., the Crucifix). If the beam is part of the chancel or other screen it is known as the Rood-Screen and if this supports a loft or gallery it is called the Rood-Loft.
Rose Window. A term used to denote a circular window of several lights. Sometimes called a marigold window.
Rotunda. A term used to describe a church, or other building, which is of circular formation.
Sacristy. A room used for storing the plate and valuables of the church. Sanctus Bell. A bell rung at the elevation of the Host. Sanctuary. The eastern portion of a church in which the High Altar is placed.
Screen. A partition of wood or stone separating one part of a church from another.
Sedilia. A seat or seats, generally canopied and on the south side of the chancel, used in pre-Reformation days during pauses in the Mass.
Solar. A loft, or upper chamber. Sometimes applied to the rood-loft.
Squint. An oblique opening in a wall or pier to allow those in transepts or aisles to see the elevation of the Host at the High Altar. Sometimes called Hagioscopes.
A Lych Gate
Stoup. Wall niche with stone basin either just within or just outside the porch containing blessed water. Rarely found unmutilated.
Tooth Ornament. An ornament used almost exclusively in Early English, resembling a square four-leaved flower, and thought to be based on a dog-tooth violet.
Tracery. Ornamental stonework in the upper part of a window.
Transepts. The projecting arms of a cruciform church.
Transition. In general, a term used to describe the process of change
from one style of architecture to another. In particular, the transition
from the Norman to the Early English Gothic.
Triforium. The storey in larger churches above the arcading on the ground level and under the Clear-Story.
Vault. Roof or ceiling of stone, brick or wood, constructed on the principle of the arch.
Wagon Roof or Wagon Vault. A semi-cylindrical roof or vault.
Wheel Window. A circular window with spoke-like shafts radiating from a hub-like centre and so resembling a wheel.
Misericord
Credence. A table or shelf on which the elements of the Eucharist are placed before consecration.
Crypt. An underground, vaulted chamber generally under the east end of the church. Sometimes called the Undercroft.
Easter Sepulchre. A recess in the north wall of the chancel in which the Host was ceremonially deposited from Maundy Thursday until Easter Sunday morning, in memory of the Resurrection.
Fan-Tracery. Tracery formed by the ribs in vaulting in which the ribs spread out and diverge equally in each direction, forming an inverted cone.
Flying Buttress. A buttress in the form of a semi-arch relieving the walls of the thrust of the upper part of the building.
Font. The stone vessel for holding the consecrated water used in baptism. Frequently older than the church, as many are survivors of an earlier building. Sometimes the marks can be seen of the bar and staple of the cover which from the thirteenth century had to be provided to prevent unauthorised use of the water.
Frith Stool. A seat placed in the most sacred part of a church, the resort of those claiming the right of sanctuary.
Galilee. A large porch or vestibule at the entrance of some of the larger churches.
Gargoyle. A projecting spout, usually grotesquely carved, used to throw rain-water from the roof well away from the church walls.
Hagioscope. See under Squint.
Jesse. An illustration, in the form of a tree growing from the body of Jesse, of the genealogy of Christ, generally in glass as a window, but sometimes in stone or needlework.
Lady Chapel. A chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, usually at the extreme east end of the choir or east of the north transept.
Lectern. A movable desk of wood or metal used for reading the Lessous. The Eagle form is the most usual in reference to Matthew xxiv, 14— the "flight" of the Gospel throughout the world.
Low-side Window. An opening near the ground, usually in the south wall of the chancel. Sometimes called "leper-windows", it is highly improbable that they had any connection with lepers and more likely to have been used ringing the sacring bell at the moment of the elevation of the Host.
Lych-Gate. A covered gate at the entrance to a churchyard, under which mourners rested with the corpse while awaiting the clergy.
Misericord. A projecting bracket fixed to the underside of the hingedseat of a stall and forming a rest when the seat is turned up. Frequently carved.
A Lowside Window Mullions. The dividinguprights
of stone or wood between the lights of a window or the openings of screens.
Nave. The main body of a church west of the chancel.
Parclose. The screen or railings dividing chancel from the aisle or protecting a monument or chantry chapel.
Parvise. An open space or porch at the entrance to a church, sometimes applied to the room over a porch.Credence. A table or shelf on which the elements of the Eucharist are placed before consecration.
An Easter Sepulchre
A Lowside Window
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