was the result of the importance of carved
and painted wood-work in late Gothic churches. The rood screen,
stretching across nave and aisles, appeared to full advantage, when
unbroken by the chancel arch. The splendid timber roofs of nave and
aisles gained in effect, if they formed, as at Southwold, or in the
churches of Norwich, an unbroken covering to the church from end to end.
In Norfolk and Suffolk, where the work of rebuilding began in the
fourteenth century, as at Cawston, Worstead, or Tunstead, the chancel
arch was often kept. At Worstead and other Norfolk churches the method
pursued by the builders was precisely opposite to that which we have
seen employed by Gloucestershire masons at Cirencester and other places,
and may see in most of the fifteenth century churches of Somerset. The
arcades were rebuilt first, and the aisles followed. Many of these
churches were doubtless enlarged from much smaller buildings. The south
aisle at Ingham was probably the nave of the earlier church, to which
the present nave, north aisle, chancel, and west tower, were added. The
aisles in most cases continued at a uniform width eastward as chancel
chapels. The north aisle at Worstead was continued by a two-storied
sacristy to the level of the east wall of the chancel. The south aisle
stops at a bay short of the east wall, leaving the end of the chancel
projecting as an altar space. Whether the chancel arch was retained or
not, the projection of this aisleless eastern bay became a very general
feature of the larger churches of East Anglia, and, in churches like
Trunch, Southwold, and Clare, its tall side windows flood the space with
light The most striking example of this plan is at Long Melford in
Suffolk, where there is no chancel arch, and the actual chancel projects
beyond the aisles. Here, however, it is flanked on the north by the
Clopton chapel, and on the south by the vestry, which forms a covered
way to the detached lady chapel further east. The Long Melford plan,
with a projecting altar space, and without a chancel arch, is nearly
universal in Cornwall, and is common in south Devon, where, as at
Totnes, the aisles of the chancel are usually little more than
comparatively short chapels, and sometimes, as at West Alvington, near
Kingsbridge, extend only a bay beyond the screen. Its great advantages,
apart from the display of wood-work which it permits, are the gain of
internal space permitted by the reduction of the solid po