Sessional Papers of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864. Excerpt: ... After the Reformation, S. Nicholas was spoiled of its contents, mainly by the corporation of the town itself, and the building fell into a deplorable state of neglect. In 1649 the chancel and its aisles were severed from the western portion of the church by the bricking up of its arches of communication; the Independents claimed a portion for their use, and the chancel was given over to them, and they broke through the canopied high-tomb of Thomas Crowmer, to make an entrance through the north wall. At the Restoration they were ejected, and the liability to maintain the chancel became a matter of dispute between the parish and the Dean and Chapter of Norwich, and in 1784 the east end fell to the ground, and the burden of re-building it being thrown upon the incumbent for the time being, he shortened the chancel by ten feet, and built a wretched wall with its miserable east window upon the old reredos (this is seen in the accompanying illustration of the Church previously to the commencement of the late restoration.) In 1551 the Corporation ordered all the sepulchral brasses in the church to be be torn from their stones and sent to London, there to be cast into weights for the use of the town, "by which inhuman deformidable act," says Weever, " the honourable memory of many virtuou9 and noble persons deceased is extinguished. This wanton spoliation in the church itself was followed up by the churchwardens, who in 1560 actually took the grave-stones out of the churchyard, and sent them to Newcastle to be converted into grindstones."--Palmer.t Maruhip, vol. ii., p. 129. The south chancel aisle has also suffered to a degree only slightly less calamitous than the chancel itself. Its angular turret has fallen, and with it a large portion of the walling. A wind...