(Read at the Sheffield Congress, August 13th, 1903.)

HE church in which we are now assembled was carefully examined during the recent restoration, and we find that this is the third church that has been built on the same site. Each of these churches has been built of a different kind of stone, which can be easily distinguished. All the three churches have been of the same length, as I shall presently show you, and portions of the two previous churches were incorporated in the present building. You will find the three doorways of the three churches built within one another, at the west end of the north wall. These can be best seen from the outside of the church.

The first church was of Saxon origin, and was built of a reddish kind of grit-stone, supposed to have been obtained from the neighbouring parish of Wickersley, where many of the grinding-stones used in the Sheffield trades are still quarried. Of this church there still remains the west end and part of the north wall of the north aisle, the lower portions of the chancel walls, and the piscina in the south wall of the sanctuary; thus showing that the first church was of the same length as the present church.

The Saxon doorway is considered by some to be a good specimen of carpenter's masonry, and to mark the transition period from wooden to stone building. The remarkable thing about the Saxon walls at the north

west end of the church is that they have been built without foundations, as we understand the term. The lowest stones in these walls are plainly visible from the outside of the church. What was the end of this first church we have no information. It may be that it was destroyed in that war of revenge in 1069, when William the First declared that, in consequence of the rebellion, headed by Earls Edwin and Morcar, their territory should be made a desert. It is a significant fact when, fourteen years after the survey recorded in Domesday Book was completed, the lands of Edwin and Morcar were entered as "wasta"-laid waste. This would account for there being no mention of a church at Laughton-en-la-Morthen in Domesday Book, and also for an Early Norman church having been built at the other end of this village, and within ten minutes' walk from this church. The greater part of that ancient church-dedicated to St. John the Baptist-still remains, but is enclosed in walls of a much more recent date, and of no great beauty.

Whatever was the fate of the first church here, the Vicar knows to his sorrow that William the Conqueror confiscated the tithes of Laughton, and they were held by the Crown until the year 1107, when Henry I gave them to York Minster, and the prebendal stall of Laughton en-la-Morthen was founded in that cathedral.

The second church was Late Norman, and built of Roche Abbey stone. Of this church, there remains incorporated with the present church the cylindrical columns with square capitals, on the north side of the nave, the stone screen at the entrance of the chancel, and the tracery of the Norman windows and doorway, which were inserted in the Saxon walls of the chancel.

This second church was destroyed during the insurrection of the Barons in the reign of Edward II. In 1322, a petition was presented to Parliament, in which the then inhabitants of Laughton complained that John de Mowbray that is, Lord Mowbray of the Isle of Axholmeand other adherents of the Earl of Lancaster, had despoiled their church, and carried away their cattle, in their attack upon Laughton. They were answered that “they might recover against the survivors by writ of trespass.'

LAUGHTON - EN-LE MORTHEN : SAXON DOORWAY.

LAUGHTON-EN-LE-MORTHEN: FROM NORTH.

(Mowbray had been executed at York.) In the destruction of the second church, the north-west corner of the first church and the chancel were spared, either from motives of reverence or superstition.

We now come to the present fourteenth-century church. On the centre window of the south aisle, forming the terminals of the weather-board, you will find the crowned heads of Edward III and his queen, and on the corresponding window of the north aisle the crowned heads of Richard II and his queen. This is considered to indicate that this church was erected in the closing years of Edward III and the beginning of the reign of Richard II, say, about 1377. If this was so, then the second church must have laid in ruins for half a century. Probably Parliament was slow to move, and the money difficult to obtain, in those turbulent times. Besides, there was St. John's Church, sufficiently large to accommodate all the parishioners for public worship.

This church is built of stone, quarried at Slade Horton, a hamlet in this parish. The excellent quality of this as a building stone is proved by the fact that, although this church was built nearly five and a-half centuries ago, there is not a bad stone in it at the present time.

I often think what a saving it would have been to the nation if the stones for building the Houses of Parliament at Westminster had been obtained from Slade Horton instead of North Unston, the distance between the two places being less than four miles.

This church is dedicated to All Saints, and consists, as you see, of north and south aisles, nave, chancel, tower, and spire, with flying buttresses. The tower and spire rise to the height of 185 ft. from the level of the churchyard. When this church was built the walls of chancel appear to have been raised, the Norman windows replaced by the present windows, and the old Saxon walls. strengthened by the erection of buttresses. The ladychapel was at the east end of the south aisle, and there are traces of where it was screened off from the rest of the church. The piscina still remains. The small arch in the south wall of the chancel is formed from the doorway of the second church. To make room for the per