men, open to
receive the improvements which more skilled foreign masons had
introduced. Consequently, while local art received a continually
increasing refinement, the plan of the church developed upon traditional
lines, and not upon those novel lines which foreign masons would have
laid down for it. The chief proof of this is seen in the persistence of
the aisleless plan with rectangular chancel and western tower. The
tendency of a Norman builder would be to design his church with an
apsidal chancel, transepts, and a central tower; his practice would
vary, but this would be his favourite plan. On the other hand, the
rectangular chancel and western tower remained the favourite
terminations of the parish church in England. But, while a large number
of rubble-built, unbuttressed Norman towers, usually heightened or
otherwise altered in the later middle ages, remain in many parts of
England, their relation to the plan suffers some change. The ground
floor of the Saxon tower was, as we have noticed, the main entrance to
the church. The Norman western tower either contained no western doorway
at all, or provided merely an entrance, which was used only on special
occasions. At Caistor the ground floor was probably the main porch of
the aisleless church; and there are exceptional instances, as at
Finchingfield in Essex, where, in fairly advanced Norman work, the same
arrangement was clearly contemplated. On the other hand, at Laceby,
between Caistor and Grimsby, a south doorway, coeval with the western
tower, has always been the main entrance to the church. Similarly, at
Hooton Pagnell, and at Blatherwycke in Northamptonshire, south doorways,
of the same age as the tower, form the chief entrance. These last three
are early Norman examples; but we may go back even further, to find the
same thing in churches which are usually reckoned as late Saxon work, at
Heapham in Lincolnshire, and Kirk Hammerton, between York and
Boroughbridge. In south Yorkshire there are a few churches of the middle
of the twelfth century whose western towers are noticeably derived, in
their plan and general construction, from the Saxon type--Birkin,
Brayton, and Riccall. But in all three, the main entrance to the church
was made through a south doorway, the arch of which is covered with
elaborate late Norman ornaments. The western tower was thus reduced to
the state of a bell-tower at one end of the church, and, while
increasing in size and in magnificen