seems little need for the gallery, as there is ample
accommodation on the floor of the church for any congregation that is
likely to assemble within the walls. Many alterations, some of which are
certainly improvements, have already been made. In an engraving, dated
1834, the organ is represented standing on the rood screen, probably the
best place for it; and the four eastern bays of the nave are seen to be
partitioned off by a wooden screen with a rod for curtains. On a level
with the capitals of the pillars, to the west of this partition, stands
the font. At this time also the triforium was boarded off in order to
shut out draughts and cold; but this boarding has happily been swept
away, the partition across the nave has been removed, and an oaken
screen with glazed panels runs across the church, cutting off the
western bay from the remainder of the nave. The font, a modern one,
now stands under the tower; a modern pulpit on the south side, under the
crossing, where also desks for the clergy and choir have been placed. It
is now the custom on Sunday mornings to read the whole of the service up
to the end of the Nicene Creed, in the nave; after the sermon is over,
the communicants alone enter the choir to receive the sacrament. The
choir is also used for week-day services. The Lady Chapel is not used.
The nave is Early Norman work, and was chiefly built during the reign
of William II.; the clerestory, however, was added at the beginning of
the thirteenth century by Peter, who was prior from 1195 to 1225. The
original nave was probably covered by a flat wooden ceiling, the Early
Norman builders rarely venturing to span any wide space by a stone
vaulting. The present vaulting is of stucco, and was added by Garbett
in 1819. The roof was altered in Perpendicular times more than once, as
indications of a higher pitched roof than the present one exists on the
east face of the fifteenth-century tower. As springing stones for a
vaulted roof exist, it is probable that a stone roof was at one time
contemplated; but possibly the idea was abandoned on account of the fear
that the walls, unsupported by any exterior flying buttress to resist
the thrust, would not have borne the weight. It will be remembered that
such buttresses are to be met with along the walls of the choir, which
is covered with a stone vaulting. The nave consists of seven bays. The
pillars of this arcading, unlike those of Flambard's nave at Durham,
are not cylin