§ 19. The names of most of these guilds, which were joined by royal and noble personages, are connected with churches of great beauty and importance, which owe their final perfection in no small degree to the benefactions of the brethren and sisters of the guilds. The chapel of Bablake, St John Baptist's church at Coventry, was a result of the incorporation of the guilds in 1392. The two guilds at Louth and Chesterfield left their mark on the churches in which they worshipped. The chancel, the aisles of the nave, the great porches, the west tower and spire, at Thaxted, belong to the epoch, if they are not altogether the direct result, of the foundation of the guild. Chantry chapels and guild chapels may exert their influence on the plan of the fabric, simply by providing it with a complete set of aisles. Of this type of plan, we already have seen an example at Beckingham. But these chapels often cause anomalies which are difficult to classify, and lead to some confusion of plan; and some instances of this character must now be given. In the first place, the chantry chapel is not confined to any definite part of the plan. In our cathedrals it is frequently an excrescence from an outer wall of the church, like the bishops' tomb chapels at Lincoln or Hereford, or it is a rectangular structure of stone, with elaborately traceried windows, cresting, and canopy work, like prince Arthur's chapel at Worcester, or the episcopal tombs at Winchester, set up within an arch of the nave or quire. Of these types we have examples in our parish churches: the first is illustrated, on a large scale, by Hall's chapel at Grantham; on a fair scale, by the chapels at Long Melford and Berkeley; and, on a rather smaller scale, by the chapels, now destroyed, of two masters of Peterhouse, on either side of Little St Mary's church at Cambridge. All these have small doorways and arches for table tombs between the church and the chapel. The chapel east of the south porch at Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire, has a tomb arch opening into the south aisle; but the entrance is in the east wall of the porch. Many examples of the second type must have existed in the larger churches of England: at Ludlow, for example, there were chantry chapels in the eastern arch of the south arcade, and in the two western arches of both arcades. We read of Sir John Pilkington's chantry, founded in 1475 at the altar of St Mary in the 'south arch' of the parish church at Wakefield: in 1478 the chantry of Roger Nowell was founded at the altar of St Peter in the 'north arch.' There are stone chantry chapels in the north and south arches of the chancel at Newark--the chantry chapel of Thomas Meyring (1500) on the north, and that of Robert Markham (1505) on the south. These chapels recall prior King's chapel at Bath abbey, the Warre chapel at Boxgrove priory, and other small independent structures, like some of the tomb chapels which form a ring round the apse at Tewkesbury. Most of these chapels beneath arches were no doubt covered, like prior Leishman's tomb at Hexham, with wooden canopies, which have now disappeared. At Burford in Oxfordshire, however, there is, in the east arch of the north arcade, a small chapel with a wooden tester and upright posts: the sides are panelled up to a certain height. The whole structure has been well restored and is still used.
Refugees Journal
The Historical Growth of the English Parish Church — Part 15
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