sles in
view; but there can be no doubt that advantage was frequently taken of
the space thus added to the aisle.

CHAPTER V

THE AISLED PARISH CHURCH

II. TRANSEPTS AND CHANCEL

Sec. 58. The aisled nave, with its usual appendages of porch and tower, has
now been described at length. Before we proceed to the development of
the chancel, the transepts or transeptal chapels of the parish church
invite discussion. The distinction between true transepts, in churches
with central towers, and the transeptal chapels which are nothing more
than northern and southern extensions of the aisles, has been made
already; and it has been seen that the cruciform plan with central tower
reached a very full state of perfection during the twelfth century.
Further dignity was given to some cruciform churches by the addition of
aisles to the transepts. St Mary Redcliffe at Bristol, the plan of which
is that of a large collegiate or cathedral rather than a parish church,
has transepts with eastern and western aisles: there is no central
tower, but the transepts form a definite cross-arm to the church, which
was designed with regard to the central point formed by the crossing of
a longitudinal and a transverse axis. There are few churches in England
as beautiful as that of Melton Mowbray, with its aisled transepts and
tower above the crossing: had the chancel only been planned on a larger
scale and with aisles, the unrivalled beauty and dignity of St Mary
Redcliffe might have been approached here. The cruciform plan with
central tower is the most noble of all church plans, when carried out by
builders with large ideas. Churches like Ludlow, Nantwich, Holy Trinity
and St John's at Coventry, St Mary's at Beverley, excite an admiration
which is the natural result of the fact that the plan, instead of
straggling in the ordinary way from east to west, is brought to a focus
beneath the central tower.

[Illustration: Fig. 14. Plan of 13th century church: west tower, south
porch, unequal transeptal chapels.]

Sec. 59. Apart, however, from the tower above the crossing, the transept
had a value of its own. It gave additional room for the side altars of
the church. The transeptal chapels at Worth allowed of greater width for
the chancel arch: the altars, which naturally would have stood against
the wall on either side of the chancel arch, could be placed within
these excrescences from the north and south walls of the church, and the
centra