LAUGHTON-EN-LE-MORTHEN CHURCH,

YORKSHIRE.

BY CHAS. LYNAM, Esq., F.S.A.

(Read, in connection with the Sheffield Congress, March 16th, 1904.)

HE following observations refer only to the doorway in the western portion of the north wall and its surrounding walling. The examination of this early work took place on the occasion of the visit of the Association to Sheffield and its neigh

bourhood in 1903. Professor Baldwin Brown, in his Arts in Early England, writes: "In the enormous churchyard attached to the chapel of St. John at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, we are informed by the antiquary Dodsworth that a fair was held on Midsummer Day, to which people came from far and near." All who joined the party on the day of our visit will remember the remarkable size of this churchyard, and also the earthwork near it, which Professor Brown describes as "an Early Norman burh,' or moated mound." In his list of Saxon Churches, the Professor includes the work of this church, and designates it as "C" (north door of nave). This signifies that this doorway is accounted as a late example of Saxon work in the Professor's classification.

It is time we should look carefully at the work itself. Sketches of an external and internal elevation and plan, made on the spot, and geometrical drawings of the same, laid down to scale, will be seen on Plate I. Perhaps this early doorway is one of the most remarkable in the whole of England. The present actual doorway and door, with the jambs, segmental head, and hoodmould, are of modern date. Above this is the semi

circular arch of an original doorway, rebated on its inner edge, with voussoirs increasing in length as they approach the centre line. The masonry of this arch is smoothly wrought, and its joints are closely fitted; but at the the same time its stones are irregular in size, and their external line is irregular and unshaped.

Looking at the inside elevation, it will be seen that the original jambs exist, but that a modern lintel has been thrown across the opening below the spring of the arch; that, again, a rebate follows the intrados, and that the arch-stones are of considerable size.

Again viewing the outside, what an extraordinary contrast is to be noticed in the rude architectural features which surround the actual doorway! Spaced at some distance from the jambs of the opening are projecting pilasters, starting from two courses of base stones in advance of the pilasters, and terminating beneath projecting imposts. The shaft on the west side consists only of two stones, the lower one very long and the other very short; on the east side of three stones, the lower long and the upper two very short. The arch springs from the imposts, and its stones are rebated on the inner edge, and on the face they project from the wall in continuation of the pilasters below them; whilst their outer surface is sunk back to line with the common face of the wall, the stones themselves being irregular in size.

This treatment of producing a projecting feature is not uncommon in Saxon work. It exists in the pilaster quoins at Wittering (Northants.) and in the arch of the south doorway at Heysham (Lancashire), and elsewhere.

It should be said here that the two lower stones of the arch on the east side are modern, and there has been a certain amount of restoration generally.

From the plan and interior elevation it will be seen that there is a straight vertical joint in this wall, at some 7 ft. from the east side of the doorway: this line is the division between the earlier and later work of this part of the church. In rudeness of workmanship the external margin to the doorway could hardly be exceeded, and this may be said of the character of the walling also; yet, withal, there is a distinct architectural feeling which

pervades the work, seen not only in its members but distinctly also in its proportions. Having regard to the refinements of the door-arch, and to the childlike struggle in the rude outer embellishment, one is inclined. to ask whether the two are coeval in date, or whether the doorway itself is not of a later period. But it is well known that Saxon work has its close-jointed masonry, yet nowhere else (as known to myself) of such careful execution as here. May it not, then, be supposed that the outer frame, with its arch and pilasters, is of the earliest Saxon period and the inner of a later date? There is a touch of rough Roman feeling about the outer treatment, as though some clever workman, who could neither draw nor design, had struggled to put the thing together from recollection of some Roman work. The character of the work at Barnack, Heysham, and many other early examples amongst my sketches are in my mind, but not one of them seems to show such a desire for architectural attainment as this at Laughton-en-le Morthen.

Of

The Congress did not go to the interesting church of Carlton-in Lyndrick (Notts.), near to Sheffield, of which Professor Baldwin Brown says "C" (enriched tower-arch)," the initial letter and number indicate Late Saxon. this tower-arch, a geometrical plan and elevation are annexed, for the purpose of illustrating the wide difference between the extreme rudeness of the Laughton example and what is really a scholastic design at Carlton (Plate II).

The difference is so great, and the Norman feeling of the Carlton archway is so apparent in its complete architectural essay, in its size and mouldings and members, carried up even to the enrichment of carving, that it is evident this example must lie on the border-line, if it does not betray itself as Norman work, executed by hands not the most skilful. In this church tower there are other marks of early features. On the south side near the ground, and again on its north side about the clock stage, fragmentary herringbone masonry is used, and in the quoin of the south-west angle of the nave, long and short work is present; but even these features may well mark the period of the border-line.