There is no
sign of Norman work here, and it seems probable that the Saxon church
remained until in the first years of the thirteenth century a new nave
and aisles were built to the west of the old tower, the lower part of
which was then removed and the tower supported by arches in order to
open a way into the nave of the old church, which thus became the
chancel of the new. It was then in all probability that the church was
newly dedicated in honour of St Thomas. The whole of the old church,
nave and chancel together, however, was destroyed before the end of the
thirteenth century, and a large new chancel built with a chapel or
vestry at the eastern end upon the north; at the same time the aisles
of the nave were rebuilt. Later in the fourteenth century the eastern
arch bearing the tower was rebuilt, and thus appeared the church which
in the main we still see. The difference in the north and south
arcades of the nave is, though, very striking here, because of the
great contrast between the exquisite and delicate beauty of the south
with its clustered columns of Purbeck and the plain round stone columns
of the north, common enough.
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