The whole place is extraordinarily impressive, and not less so on
account of its containing a church within the Roman walls, possibly
occupying the site of a Roman sanctuary. The church of Our Lady of
Porchester, however, as we see it, was, of course, a Norman building,
built not later than 1133 when Henry I. gave it to the Austin Canons as
their priory church, but about 1145 the canons were removed to
Southwick, where a house was built for them. They must, indeed, have
been very much in the way within so important a fortress seeing how
international the interests of their congregation were. The church, of
course, remained. It was originally a cruciform building, with central
tower, but the south transept has been destroyed as has the chapel east
of the north transept where now the vestry stands. The eastern apse,
too, has been replaced by a square end. Apart from these changes,
however, the church remains largely as it was in the time of Henry I.,
the west front being especially fine, and the font with its relief of
the Baptism of Our Lord, a very notable Romanesque work.
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