Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/243

There was a problem when proofreading this page.
IFFLEY CHURCH, OXFORDSHIRE.
223

BASE OF TOWER-ARCH.

have been always the same. On the north side of the tower is a square stair-turret, ornamented in the upper part with a sort of shafts, and a peculiar zigzag string, and finished at the top by a sloping stone roof dying into the face of the tower below the corbel-table; the original entrance to the stair-turret was from within the church, but a modern entrance has been made from the outside. In the thickness of the south wall of the tower is the staircase to the rood-loft, introduced in the fifteenth century, with two doorways, one from the floor, the other to the loft, both now blocked up; this appears to have caused the removal of a Norman window and the introduction of a Perpendicular one, to suit the new arrangement, and the opposite window was made uniform with this. At the east end of the nave, and joining on to the tower, are recesses in the wall now plastered over, which were the places for two chantry-altars, an arrangement which was very customary.

Top of Staircase Turret.

The first bay of the present, which was the whole of the original, chancel, is, like the rest of the work, rich Norman, with a good groined vault, the ribs very boldly cut into zigzags.