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Eastern, were greatly dilapidated. The South wall was penetrated by ivy,
which, though cut away and destroyed externally, was rooted in the
walling, and continued to grow into the inside of the building. The
mortar, which appeared never to have been good, had lost its tenacity,
and, where the cracks had spread in the walls, it could be taken out in
loose pieces and crushed in the hand: the flints, of which the walls are
mainly composed, were also loose, and could be taken out with the hand.
The ashlar masonry, which is of Caen stone, was mostly sound.
A large recess had been rudely formed in the lower part of
the Eastern end of each side wall of the nave, intended, probably, to give
a little additional room for an altar on each side of the. chancel arch.
Their effect had been to promote the defects in the adjoining parts of the
building.
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One of the mullions of the circular window, in the Eastern gable, was of oak; and much of the distortion of this window, and
of the injury to the fabric, above and about it, appeared to be owing to
the compression caused by the decay of the wood.
In carrying out the repairs in 1840, all ashlar masonry
(unless otherwise herein described) was replaced exactly according to the
original arrangement, with the surface undisturbed even by the removal of
the lichens growing on it. In the few parts where decay or former
alterations rendered new stone work necessary, this has been rigidly
copied from the old work. No part of the building was disturbed, beyond
what was needful to put it into a sound condition.
Outside the nave, three new stones were introduced in. the
South-west quoin, and four in the South-east. In the South doorway, new
plinths were
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