This
is a relic of a more ancient edifice than the structure in which it now
appears, and which is of the fourteenth century; and the external masonry
of the doorway is not tied into the walls of more recent construction, but
exhibits a break all round. The church of Stoneleigh, in the same county,
contains in the north wall a fine Norman doorway, which has been left
undisturbed, though the wall on each side of Norman construction, has been
altered, not by demolition, but by the insertion, in the fourteenth
century, of decorated windows in lieu of the original small Norman lights.
Q. Were the Norman doorways much ornamented?
A. Many rich doorways were composed of a succession of receding
semicircular arches springing from rectangular-edged jambs, and detached
shafts with capitals in the nooks; which shafts, together with the arches,
were often enriched with the mouldings common to this style. Sometimes the
sweep of mouldings which faced the architrave was continued without
intermission down the jambs or sides of the doorway; and in small country
churches Norman doorways, quite plain in their construction, or with but
few mouldings, are to be met with. There is, perhaps, a greater variety of
design in doorways of this than of any other style; and of the numerous
mouldings with which they in general abound more or less, the chevron, or
zig-zag, appears to have been the most common.
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