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ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 481
square choir, and apsidal presbytery. In some instances the
square choir of the threefold type formed the base of a tower,
though generally the church bells were hung in a bell cote on
the west gable. Examples where no expense has been spared to
enrich the building decoratively are Kilpeck in Herefordshire,
with its celebrated porch and chancel arch sculpture, Iffley in
Oxfordshire, with a notable treatment of the west front, and
Leuchars in Fife, a rather later example (PL 89 a). A variation
of this type of plan is where a tower is added to the west ofthe
nave, anticipating the usual form of parish church of the
middle ages. A less usual plan form than the axially arranged
series of 'boxes* is the aisleless cruciform church with a central
tower, ofwhich the remains of a fine and richly/decorated ex/
ample dated 1124 is at Castor in Northamptonshire, and a
remarkable thirteentlvcentury example at Potterne in Wilt'
shire. These are all examples of basic types of plan; most often
or re-'
early medieval parish churches have been enlarged
modelled at various dates. The most usual modification is the
addition of aisles to the nave, or, less frequently and generally
later, to the chancel. This, as also with the addition of porches,
western towers, transeptal chapels, &c., was done piecemeal,
and it is this process which gives the parish churches their evi'
dential value as documents in the religious and social history of
the middle ages and also a great part oftheir picturesque appeal.
The number of early parish churches which have a truly
architectural quality such as one finds in the great churches is
comparatively small. They are to be found in large villages or
small towns; the larger and more ancient towns were divided
into a large number ofsmall parishes, and even when they were
very rich, as in Lincoln and Norwich, were, at any rate before
the thirteenth century, remarkable for the number rather than
the splendour of their churches, and this was particularly
true of London. In such quickly grown seaports
as New
Shoreham or Hythe there are early churches of great magni/
ficence; Melbourne in Derbyshire, a residence ofthe bishop of
Carlisle, is a church with a great nave of five bays with two
western towers, and at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire and Wai/