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388 THE SUSSEX COAST |
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were built about the middle of the thirteenth century. Between the south transept and the nave aisle is a chantry vaulted in two bays.
The French burnt a large part of Rye in 1378, almost the whole of it in 1448, and by the latter calamity the town was very badly crippled. Though no part of the church was actually left in ruins (as at Winchelsea), its repair went on at the slowest pace. Another arch was added, rather clumsily, to the damaged north arcade of the chancel, a corresponding arcade of three arches with clustered pillars was built up on the south. At the east end two large new windows were erected (the fourteenth-century five-light window of the north chapel had been preserved), and this part was strengthened by the erection of blocks of masonry surmounted by pinnacles connected with the church by beautiful pierced flying buttresses. Other great windows were erected in the transepts ; the central tower was rebuilt from the ground, using old arches west and north; there are square-headed windows and a very low spire, now surmounted by a vane dated 1703. The nave aisles had practically to be rebuilt, and new timber roofs to be supplied throughout the church.
The greater part of these extensive repairs was finished before the Churchwardens' Accounts begin in 1513, but they were by no means altogether complete, and the following, among other entries, refer to the fabric itself:—
£ s. d. 1513 Paid to a plumber for the new healing
with lead of Saint Clere's chancel ... 0 8 0 Paid to Gregory Wakhand, mason, for 4 bu. lime, the making of 2 corbells, the dottyng, and for the making of the wall there ............ 0 5 2 |
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