A circular window, with divisions formed by small shafts and
semicircular or trefoiled arches, disposed so as to converge to a common
centre, sometimes occurs in the gable at the east end of a Norman church,
as at Barfreston Church, Kent; and New Shoreham Church, Sussex; and are
not uncommon.
[Illustration: Early Norman Window, Darent Church, Kent, with incipient
zig-zag moulding.]
Q. What kinds of piers were the Norman piers?
A. Early in the style they were (with some exceptions, as in the crypts
beneath the cathedrals of Canterbury and Worcester) very massive, and the
generality plain and cylindrical; though sometimes they were square, which
was indeed the most ancient shape; sometimes they appear with rectangular
nooks or recesses; and, in large churches, Norman piers had frequently one
or more semicylindrical pier-shafts attached, disposed either in nooks or
on the face of the pier. We sometimes meet with octagonal piers, as in the
cathedrals of Oxford and Peterborough, the conventual church at Ely, and
in the ruined church of Buildwas Abbey, Salop; and also, though rarely,
with piers covered with spiral flutings, as one is in Norwich Cathedral;
with the spiral cable moulding, as one is in the crypt of Canterbury
Cathedral; and encircled with a spiral band, as one appears in the ruined
chapel at Orford, in Suffolk; sometimes, also, they appear covered with
ornamental mouldings.
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