Bells Cathedrals: Wimbourne Minster and Christchurch Priory | Page 9

and the
tower may be described as severely plain in character. The college was
never wealthy, hence probably it could not employ a number of carvers;
then again it was not a monastic establishment, so that there were no
monks to occupy their time in the embellishment of the building,
carving, as monks often did, their quaint fancies on bosses and capitals.
We miss the crockets and finials, the ball-flower, and other ornaments
that we meet with in so many fourteenth-century buildings; but the very
simplicity of the work gives the church a dignity that is often wanting
in more highly ornamented structures. The small number of the
buttresses in the body of the church is noteworthy; save at the angles
there are only five--namely, two on each nave aisle, and one on the
north choir aisle. At each of the eastern corners of the choir aisles the
buttresses are set diagonally, as also are those on the northern corners
of the north porch. There is a buttress on each of the side walls of the
north porch, and two set at right angles to each other at each of the two
corners of the north transept, and also at the south-west corner of the
south transept; beneath the east window of the choir there is a small
one. The buttresses at the corner of the choir project but slightly. The
central tower has none, but the west tower has an octagonal buttress at
each corner. The central tower attracts notice first. From the outside at
the angles a small portion of the plain wall of the triforium stage may
be seen, against which the roofs of the choir and transepts abut; the
nave roof, however, hides all of this stage at the western face: above
this face is a band of red-brown sandstone, and above this the clerestory
stage. In each face are two round-headed windows with a pointed blank

arch between them. There are six slender shafts to support the outer
order of moulding over the two windows and the blank arch, and two of
a similar character to support the inner ring of moulding over each
window. At each corner of the tower up to the top of this stage runs a
slender banded shaft. This stage is finished by a string course, above
which the tower walls recede slightly, the walls of the upper or belfry
storey being a little thinner than those below. This stage, perfectly plain
within, is the most richly-ornamented part of the tower outside: it is the
latest Norman work to be found in the minster, and probably may be
dated late in the twelfth century. An arcading of intersecting
round-headed arches runs all round this storey. Seven pointed arches
are thus formed in each face; between these arches stand slender pillars
with well carved capitals which show a great variety of design. Five of
the seven arches on each face were originally open, save possibly for
louvre-boards placed to keep out the rain; now all but the central one on
each face are walled up, and the centre one is glazed. This filling up
was not all done at the same time, as the varying character of the stone
shows. The work was no doubt begun in order to strengthen the walls
when the spire was added, and was continued from time to time as the
necessity for further strengthening arose. Above the stage was a bold
corbel table, and this is the upper limit of the Norman work. There can
be little doubt that the Norman builder, here as elsewhere, finished his
tower with a low pyramidal roof with overhanging eaves to shoot off
the rain. This covering may have been of lead, but possibly of stone
tiles or wooden shingles. About a century later this Norman roof was
removed to make place for a loftier roof or spire. Of its character and
material and height we know nothing--there is no description of it; and
though the minster is represented on an old seal with one spire-crowned
tower, yet the representation of the rest of the church is so conventional
that it cannot be regarded as an authentic record of the actual
appearance of the steeple. It is curious that, as it stood for about three
hundred years and fell only in the later years of Elizabeth's reign, no
drawing remains to show us what this spire was like. But it passed
away, doing some damage to the building in its fall, and that is the only
record it has left behind; but we can well picture to ourselves how
much importance must have been added to the minster by this spire,
which must have been a conspicuous object for many miles round. The

present heavy, ugly battlemented parapet spoils the general