| Share page |
|
WORTHING 139 |
||
|
Broadwater, whose Green is reached by a short footpath over flinty fields from Tarring, and whose cruciform church is one of the finest in Sussex. The original building was Norman with transept-less central tower, the east and west arches, each with three shafts aside, enriched with palm-leaves, zigzag, lozenge, eagle's beak, and other ornaments. The foundations settled somewhat, the eastern arch is out of shape, and in a later age curious little buttresses have been constructed to support it against the chancel walls. In the Early English period the west tower arch was narrowed and rebuilt in lancet form with the old carved stones; the effect is singular. The low tower has corner shafts and single-light windows, whose inner and outer arches are round or just pointed and vary strangely in different examples; the stair turret has been taken down, except the lower part, in order to reduce the weight. The chancel of four bays is a striking example of Early English; a string course with zigzag and pellet runs round, "hook" corbels (resembling those of New Shore-ham, with large loops between them and the wall) support little clustered shafts on which rests the quadrapartite vaulting; its ribs in the two west bays are left unmoulded. Plain large lancets let in light. Still in the Early English period transepts were added, opening by plain arches pierced through the tower walls and breaking Norman windows, their orders square and plainly bevelled ; substantially similar arches, three in each, opened to the eastern aisles which the transepts once possessed. Nearly all the Early English work is for a church of such dimensions rather plain, shafts and other ornamental details being most stingily supplied. The Decorated nave (with |
||