hollowed,
and a square label, much damaged and defaced. These two archways were
no doubt made to admit a modicum of light to what must always have
been a dimly lighted choir.

The eastern wall of the present chancel contains the arch (now blocked
up) which formed the entrance to the apsidal sanctuary. This arch is
very spacious, being 12 feet 3 inches wide between the capitals, and
20 feet high. It is composed of a single broad, flat-faced member,
with well carved but primitive caps, supported by a semi-cylindrical
shaft on either side. The plinth, or base, is but slightly moulded,
and is 23 inches in height. The label is square and exceptionally
prominent, springing from carved heads representing tusked animals
(probably boars) of considerable size.

Above the arch is a Perpendicular window, which was probably inserted
after the sanctuary had been removed, though it may have replaced an
earlier opening. Between the sill of the window and the blocked-up
arch there are impost members or brackets fixed in the wall, and
abutting against the side walls, the mouldings which return being
different in each. There were probably similar brackets in the western
wall of the choir which has been removed, and they may have been
supports for the floor of the central tower. On this same wall are two
stone slabs about 4 feet by 3 feet, with pointed tops flanking the
window, which look as if they were intended to block up the splayed
openings of former and possibly still existing window openings, though
they have been internally and externally blocked.

There is no trace in any account of the church as to how or when the
eastern tower was removed or destroyed. Lyson's two drawings of the
church show the choir portion considerably higher than the rest of the
building, with a roof quite different in pitch. This might be due to
the fact that the choir had been loftier than the nave, or to the
partial removal of the masonry of this tower. It seems just a probable
explanation that this tower fell towards the end of the fifteenth
century--perhaps after a fire of which there are traces in the south
east corner of the building--and in its fall did such damage to the
sacristy, the apsidal sanctuary, and the chapel at the east of the
south transept, that the brethren of Tewkesbury, of which abbey
Deerhurst had become a cell in 1469, felt it to be beyond their means
to restore the fabric. This, of course, is merely a theory, but it
would acco