Sec. 62. There are a number of cases in which transeptal chapels have been
kept from an earlier cruciform plan, in which they may have formed true
transepts. The fine church of Oundle, whose western tower and spire
already have been mentioned as built about 1400, has very fully
developed transeptal chapels. The nave and aisles, and the greater part
of the chapels, are, in their present state, work of the thirteenth
century; but the eastern bay of the present nave was entirely remodelled
about 1350, when a clerestory was added. This bay had evidently been
designed to carry a central tower: the nave arcades stop west of it, and
there is a thick piece of wall between them and the arches opening from
it into the chapels. These arches and the chancel arch were entirely
reconstructed at the time just mentioned. The western arch, however, was
removed, and an original crossing was thus converted into a bay of the
nave. Whether there ever was a central tower is, of course, an uncertain
point; but the building of a west tower on a new site not many years
after this reconstruction is a fact which makes the previous existence
of a central tower probable. The removal of a central tower would be due
to one of two causes. Either its supports were weak, or it blocked up
the space between nave and chancel too much. The central tower of
Petersfield in Hampshire was taken down; but its east wall still remains
between nave and chancel. However, if there are cases in which a central
tower was removed, and a west tower built, there are probably more in
which a central tower was planned, and then abandoned. Campsall church,
near Doncaster, has unmistakable signs of a projected cruciform plan
with a central tower, and has a regular crossing with transepts. But it
is probable that the builders changed their minds before the nave was
finished; and, although they doubtless left the arches, which were
intended to bear their tower, for a later generation to remove and
rebuild, they went westward and built a tower at the other end of the
nave. This tower was finished towards the end of the third quarter of
the twelfth century. The builders of Newark church, who were peculiarly
susceptible to after-thoughts, apparently planned a central tower in the
later part of the twelfth century. It is difficult to explain otherwise
the slender clusters of shafts which project into the nave from the
first pier west of the chancel arch on either side. Such piers wer