was built, but, instead of
copying the proportions of the northern chapel symmetrically, the
builders gave their new chapel a much greater width, and placed its
altars in an eastern aisle. The plan is thus accidentally cruciform. At
Acton Burnell and Achurch it is, no doubt, designedly cruciform; at
Montacute and Childs Wickham, imperfectly cruciform. But all three
varieties belong to one class, the longitudinal plan with transeptal
extensions. The structural feature which makes the truly cruciform plan,
the central tower upon arches and piers, is wanting. And this
distinction between churches planned from a centre, and churches whose
plan follows a longitudinal axis, although often overlooked, is
essential.

[Illustration: Fig. 8. North Newbald, Yorkshire: tower arches, chancel
and S. transept, from N.W.]

Sec. 36. A noble example of a Norman cruciform church, whose plan has
suffered little alteration, exists at North Newbald in the east Riding
of Yorkshire. At each angle of the crossing are masses of shafted piers,
connected by wide and lofty rounded arches. The nave, as is usual, is
the longest arm of the four, so that the plan is a Latin cross. It has
north and south doorways: there are also doorways in the end walls of
the transepts, placed in the western part of each wall. In the east
wall of each transept is an arch, now blocked up, the filling being
pierced with fifteenth century windows. These arches are the openings of
original apses, which contained the transept altars. The chancel,
probably always rectangular, was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. As a
corollary of the true cruciform plan, the four arms are all of equal
width. At Bampton-in-the-Bush, Oxon, where the plan of the church was
greatly altered in the thirteenth century by the addition of aisles, the
Norman plan was very similar to that of North Newbald. The cruciform
plan of Melbourne, Derbyshire, with its aisled nave, was probably
inspired more directly by continental examples. The aisleless chancel
was vaulted, and ended in an apse, which was squared in later times by
the addition of a rectangular piece east of its springing points. Out of
the east walls of the short transepts opened wide apses, the walls of
which joined the western ends of the walls of the chancel. Thus,
externally, the plan of the eastern part of the church was closely
allied to the plan with three apses which, in some of our larger
churches, was derived from Normandy. At M