Appendix 3

ABACUS: the flat slab of stone on which the end of an arch rests.

ACHIEVEMENT: a complete armorial device including besides a shield, perhaps a helm, crest, wreath

supporters and motto, etc.

AISLE: a lateral division of a nave, chancel or transept, separated off by an arcade.

ALTERNATE TRACERY: one of the main divisions of Perpendicular tracery, in which supermullions rise

from the tops of the archlets immediately below but where no mullion is carried up to the window head in

a direct line (cf. SUPERMULLIONED TRACERY and PANELLED TRACERY).

ANGLE BUTTRESSES: a pair of buttresses meeting at 90° to each other at a corner of a building.

APSE: a semicircular or semi-polygonal end to a chancel or chapel.

ARCADE: a row of arches in the same plane.

ARCH: a curved structure formed by the placing together of wedge-shaped pieces of stone, which are held in

place by pressure from above and the sides.

ARCHLET: a small arch, especially one forming the head of a single window light.

ARCHED BRACE: a curved beam providing support to a roof by joining a collar beam to a wall plate or

hammerbeam, a hammerbeam in one tier to a hammerbeam in another, or a hammerbeam to a wall plate.

ARCHIVOLT: the under-surface of an arch.

ASHLAR: rectangular blocks of hewn stone.

ASHLAR PIECES: short vertical timbers which continue the plane of the internal wall until it meets the

underside of the rafters and which generally join the rafters to the wall plate or sole pieces.

AUMBRY: A recess in a wall, cut to hold the communion vessels.

AXIAL: A term used to describe a church with a central tower (i.e. between the nave and the chancel) but with

no transepts.

BALL FLOWER: a masonry repeating ornament, characteristic of the Decorated style, looking like a stylized

flower bud.

BALUSTER: a colonnette supporting a rail.

BALUSTER MULLION: a wide, bulging mullion, often found in windows dating from the Saxon period.

BALUSTRADE: a row of balusters supporting a rail.

BAREFACED: a term used to describe a timber joint with a single shoulder, which would normally have two.

BARGEBOARDS: boards, often decorative, fixed to cover the eaves of a gable and thus to

protect the ends of the rafters.

BARREL VAULT: a continuous vault of semicircular cross-section.

BAR TRACERY: window tracery in which the lights are separated by slender shafts.

BATTLEMENTS: rectangular indentations in a parapet.

BAY: a transverse division of part of a building, having a width of one arch, unit of a vault, or window.

BEAKHEAD: a masonry repeating ornament, characteristic of the Norman style, looking like a stylized bird’s

head and beak or, occasionally, beast’s head and tongue.

BELL-COTE: a bell turret set above a roof.

BILLET MOULDING: an ornament characteristic of the Norman style, consisting of short cylindrical blocks

placed at regular intervals in hollow mouldings.

BLANK ARCADE: an arcade fronting a wall, which it is used to decorate.

BLANK TRACERY: the imitation of window tracery, fronting a wall or wooden panel in order to decorate it.

BOLECTION MOULDING: a convex moulding which projects beyond the surface it frames, characteristic of

joinery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

BOSS: a projection at the intersection of the ribs of a vault or of the main timbers of a wooden roof.

BOWTELL: a slender round moulding, treated as a shaft with a base and capital, characteristic of the

Perpendicular style.

BOX PEW: a pew enclosed by a high back and ends, the ends having doors.

BRACE: any timber reinforcing an angle.

BRATTISHING: ornamental cresting.

BROACH: a half-pyramid filling the angle between the corner of a square tower and one side of an octagonal

spire above or acting as a stop to a chamfered moulding.

BROKEN PEDIMENT: a pediment in which the central portion of the base is omitted.

BUTTRESS: a protruding structure at a side or corner of a building, built to provide a counterforce to the

outward thrust of the roof.

CABLE MOULDING: a convex moulding characteristic of the Norman style, resembling a rope.

CAMBER BEAMS: tie beams with sufficient curvature to allow a roof to be constructed directly on top, without

any further superstructure, while yet providing an angle of pitch just great enough to enable the roof to drain.

CANOPY: an ornamental projection above a monument, niche, piscina etc.

CANOPY OF HONOUR: elaborately carved or painted panels sometimes found attached to a nave roof,

above a rood screen or loft.

CANT: an oblique line cutting off a corner, as created in a roof by a secondary timber connecting a collar

beam to a rafter.

CAPITAL: the ornamental projecting top of a pier, shaft or column.

CAROLEAN: of the reign of Charles I (1625-49) or Charles II (1660-85).

CASEMENT MOULDING: a very wide, shallow, hollow moulding, characteristic of the Perpendicular style.

CASTELLATED: embattled.

CHAMFER: a band produced by cutting away a right angle, consisting in its simplest form of a flat plane at

45° to the main surfaces.

CHANCEL: the eastern division of a church, in which the altar is placed.

CHAPEL: a transept or part of an aisle, divided off from the rest of a church or cathedral, provided with its

own altar and dedication.

CHEQUERWORK: an ornamental wall-facing constructed in two materials (for example, flint and ashlar),

resembling a chess board.

CHEVRON: a zigzag moulding, characteristic of the Norman style.

CINQUEFOIL: divided into five foils.

CLASPING BUTTRESS: a buttress which entirely encloses the corner of a building.

COFFERED PANEL: a sunk panel, as used particularly in carpentry (cf. FIELDED).

COFFERING: an arrangement of sunken panels decorating a vault or arch soffit.

COLLAR BEAM: a major roof beam which crosses a roof transversely above the tie beams, to connect a pair

of principal rafters.

COLLAR PURLIN: a major roof beam that connects the collar beams at the midpoint and which thus runs

immediately below the ridge beam.

COLONNADE: a row of columns.

COLONNETTE: a small pier.

COMMON RAFTER: a slat joining the ridge beam to a wall plate in roof construction.

COMPOSITE ORDER: a form of the classical column characterized by a fluted shaft, and a bell-shaped

capital which combines Ionic volutes with Corinthian foliage.

CONSOLE: an ornamental bracket of curved outline and often scrolled.

CORBEL: a projection from a wall designed to support something, especially the end of an arch.

CORBEL SHAFT: a shaft supporting some feature such as an arch or a vault but which is itself supported by

a corbel below.

CORBEL TABLE: a projecting masonry course resting on a row of corbels (which are often joined by a

series of arches).

CORINTHIAN ORDER: a form of the classical column characterized by a fluted shaft, and a bell-shaped

capital decorated with acanthus, laurel or olive foliage from which eight small projections emerge (known

as "caulicoli").

CORNICE: a moulded ledge along the top of any architectural feature or, in roof construction, a decorative

moulding in the angle between the wall and the pitch of the roof itself.

COUPLE ROOF: a simple roof in which the rafter pairs are joined at the ridge beam only, there being no tie

beams or collar beams.

COURSE: a continuous line of masonry at one level.

COVE or COVING: a large concave surface filling the angle between a wall and a roof or ceiling.

CROCKET: an ornamental projection from a pinnacle or gablet, in the form of a stylized leaf.

CREDENCE: a recess in the wall of the sanctuary, designed to hold the bread and wine before their consecration

in the Eucharist.

CREDENCE SHELF: a shelf set within a piscina, designed to act as a credence and provide the piscina with dual

function.

CROSSING: the space between the nave, transepts and chancel in a cruciform church.

CROW-STEPPED GABLE: a gable with stepped sides.

CRUCIFORM: a term used to describe a church which is cross-shaped in plan, having both transepts and a

central tower (cf. PSEUDO-CRUCIFORM).

CRUCK: a curved timber that forms the whole of one side of an arch (that is, both the jamb and one side of

the arch itself), usually indicating a building's early vernacular construction.

CRYPT: an underground chamber in a church, usually beneath the chancel.

CUPOLA: a small dome crowning a larger dome or roof.

CURVILINEAR TRACERY: a form of window tracery, characteristic of the Decorated style, in which weaving

lines of masonry form daggers and mouchettes above ogee arches.

CUSHION CAPITAL: a simple style of capital characteristic of the Norman style consisting of a cubical

block of stone rounded at the lower edge.

CUSP: the point formed by the meeting of two arcs in Gothic tracery.

DADO: the lower part of a screen, wall, or other vertical architectural surface, usually divided from the

upper parts by a DADO RAIL.

DAGGER: a lance-shaped motif found in window traceries in Decorated style.

DECORATED: depending on context, a term used to describe either the architectural period from c.1300 to

c.1349 (the year of the Black Death), or alternatively, the style that was then prevalent but which in some

places extended beyond, characterized especially by cusped arches, the construction of elaborate window

tracery and, from c. 1315, the ogee.

DIAGONAL BUTTRESS: a buttress at a corner of a building constructed at an angle of 135° to the walls

meeting at that corner.

DOG-TOOTH: a masonry repeating ornament, characteristic of the Early English style, resembling a four-

cornered star positioned diagonally and raised at the centre.

DORIC ORDER: a form of the classical column, either fluted or unfluted and with or without a base,

characterized by its frieze above consisting of “triglyphs” (raised rectangular blocks with two vertical

grooves down the centre and a half-groove at the edge - hence three grooves) alternating with decorated

spaces between (“metopes”).

DORMER: a vertical window projecting from a roof.

DOUBLE-CONE MOULDING: a moulding occasionally encountered around arches dating from the Norman

period, formed of cones facing left and right alternately.

DRIPSTONE: a projecting moulding over a window or doorway, intended to throw off rain water.

DROP TRACERY: window tracery which begins above the archlets but below the springing level,

characteristic of middle to late Perpendicular work; alternatively, the term can be used to describe

ornamentation of any period, hanging from an archivolt and resembling window tracery.

DURN: a timber cut from a specially selected tree branch, such that the side of a curved doorway or arch can

be made from it in a single piece.

EARLY ENGLISH: the earliest Gothic architectural style, characterized especially by the use of the lancet

arch and coinciding almost exactly with the thirteenth century (thus obviating the need to refer also to an

Early English period).

EASTER SEPULCHRE: a recess, usually in a chancel north wall, containing a tomb chest depicting the

burial and resurrection of Christ.

EAVES: the part of a roof which overhangs the walls.

EMBATTLED: having battlements.

EMBRASURES: the down-steps in battlements.

ENGLISH BOND: a method of bonding bricks in which courses of headers and stretchers are laid alternately.

ENTABLATURE: the combined assembly of horizontal members supported by a row of columns in classical

architecture.

EXTRADOS: the outer curve of an arch (cf. INTRADOS or SOFFIT).

EYELET: a small opening in a traceried window, usually formed between the apex of the arch above and

"Y"-forking tracery bars below (cf. OCULUS).

FACADE: the face of a building, especially one designed to look grand.
FALSE HAMMERBEAM:

FAN VAULT: a vault formed by the bringing together of inverted, concave cones, each overlaid with ribs of

equal length and curvature, radiating at equal angles from a single shaft.

FENESTRATION: the arrangement and style of windows in a building.

FIELDED PANEL: a raised panel, as used particularly in carpentry (cf. COFFERED).

FILLET: a narrow, flat projecting band, especially down the side of a pier or around the moulding of an arch.

FINIAL: an ornament crowning a pinnacle, spire, gable or pediment.

FIRST POINTED STYLE: another name for the Early English style but used in these notes to refer

especially to nineteenth century work using similar forms.

FLEMISH BOND: a method of bonding bricks in which headers and stretchers are laid alternately in each

course, and such that the stretchers of one course rest on the headers of the course below.

FLEURON: a decorative carved flower.

FLOWING TRACERY: another term for CURVILINEAR TRACERY.

FLUSHWORK: the use of flint and dressed stone to produce decorative patterns commonly of blank

arcading, worked in a single plane.

FLUTING: a decoration formed of parallel concave mouldings (cf. REEDING).

FLYING BUTTRESS: an essentially free-standing buttress that supports part of a building by the thrust

exerted from a half-arch springing across from the top.

FOIL: a lobe formed by the meeting of two cusps, characteristic of Gothic traceries from c. 1300 onwards

(i.e. in both Decorated and Perpendicular styles).

FOUR-CENTRED ARCH: a depressed arch, characteristic of later Perpendicular work formed of two

concave pairs of arcs, the upper pair having a larger radius than the lower (cf. TWO-CENTRED ARCH).

GABLE: the triangular piece of wall at the end of a ridged roof.

GABLET: a small gable (for example, above a lucarne).

GADROONING: a simple moulding formed of a line of convex ridges, frequently angled and slightly overlapping.

GALLETING: small stones set in a mortar course.

GALILEE: a porch at the W. end of a church, often of greater than average height and sometimes entirely

open to the west.

GALLERY: a projecting platform at the side or back of a church, typically of eighteenth century date,

reached by a stairway and designed to provide extra seating, sometimes for a prestigious local family.

GARGOYLE: a carved figure – often a grotesque – disguising a water pipe.

GEOMETRICAL TRACERY: a form of window tracery, characteristic of Early English work of the late

thirteenth century, typified by the use of circles and other simple, geometrical shapes.

GIBBS SURROUND: a typically eighteenth century treatment of a door or window surround, named after

James Gibbs (1682-1754) and featuring especially, jambs punctuated at intervals by large, rectangular

blocks of stone.

GOTHIC: in architecture, the overriding, composite style, prevailing from c.1200 to the early sixteenth

century, characterized by the use of the pointed arch and encompassing the three successive styles known

as the EARLY ENGLISH, DECORATED and PERPENDICULAR (cf. ROMANESQUE).

GOTHICK: imitation Gothic work, especially of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, preceding

the stricter forms based on the more serious study of the Gothic Revivalists.

GOTHIC REVIVAL: the dominant architectural style during the reign of Queen Victoria, when Gothic forms

based on those of the Middle Ages, and of the Decorated style in particular, were advocated by many

influential people (most notably A.W.N. Pugin, 1812 -1852, and John Ruskin, 1819-1900) as the only ones

admissible in a Christian country.

GROTESQUE: a carved, deliberately grotesque figure, in animal or human form, added to a building to

provide decoration.

GUILLOCHE: a repeating pattern of interlaced spirals, used to decorate mouldings.

HALF-HIPPED ROOF: a roof in which the upper part of the gable is inclined inwards.

HALL CHURCH: a church with nave and aisles of the same height and, frequently, where the aisles are

provided with their own ridged roofs.

HAMMERBEAM: a beam projecting horizontally from the top of a wall or from part-way up a ridged roof,

which does not meet the corresponding beam from the other side but supports a HAMMERPOST and arched

brace and is itself supported by a brace beneath rising from a lower hammerbeam or wall post.

HAMMERPOST: a post rising vertically from the end of a HAMMERBEAM.

HERTFORDSHIRE SPIKE: a needle-like spire of a type especially common in Hertfordshire and exemplified

at St. Mary’s, Ashwell;

HIPPED ROOF: a roof in which the entire gable is inclined inwards.

HOLLOW CHAMFER: a chamfer which has been hollowed out to produce a concave surface.

HOOD-MOULD: a dripstone, but sometimes a purely ornamental one (for example, above an arch in an

internal arcade).

IMPOST: a horizontal member at the top of a jamb on which the end of an arch rests.

INTERSECTING SUBARCUATION: subarcuation where the subordinate arches intersect.

INTERSECTING TRACERY: a form of window tracery, characteristic of Early English work of the mid to

late thirteenth century, typified by a branching of each mullion at the springing level into a Y and the

subsequent intersection of these branches.

INTRADOS: another word for a SOFFIT.

IONIC ORDER: a form of the classical column characterized by a fluted shaft and a straight-sided capital

with large volutes.

JACOBEAN: of the reign of James I (1603-25).

JAMB: the vertical side of a doorway or window.

KEEL MOULDING: a moulding with a cross-section like the keel of a ship.

KEYSTONE: the central voussoir in an arch.

KING-POST: a major roof strut rising from a tie beam to the ridge beam.

KING-PIECE: as used in these volumes, a short king-post rising only from a collar.

KNAPPED FLINT: dressed flint.

LABEL: a rectangular dripstone or hood-mould.

LABEL STOP: an ornamental projection terminating a dripstone or hood-mould, whether rectangular or not.

LADY CHAPEL: a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

LANCET: a one-light window or other arch, characteristic of the Early English style, formed of a pair of

concave arcs, drawn from centres on the springing line and with a radius greater than the arch width.

LANTERN: a circular or polygonal structure with windows all round, raised on a tower or roof to admit

light.

LAP DOVETAIL: an overlapping form of dovetail joint which is not finished flush.

LATTICED SUPERTRANSOM: a latticed transom above the springing level.

LATTICED TRANSOM: a horizontal connection between the mullions of a window, formed by intersecting

curved bars at the same level in adjacent lights.

LEAN-TO ROOF: a single-sloped roof built against a wall.

LESENE: an unstructural vertical member in a wall, characteristic of the Saxon style.

LIERNE: in a vault, a tertiary rib that links a principal rib to a tierceron.

LIERNE VAULT: a vault exhibiting liernes.

LIGHT: one of the main vertical divisions of a window.

LINENFOLD PANELLING: wooden panelling in which each panel is given a conventional representation of

a piece of linen laid over it.

LINTEL: a flat slab of stone across the top of a doorway.

LONG-AND-SHORT WORK: a method of laying quoins characteristic of the Saxon style, in which slabs of

stone are laid alternately horizontally and vertically.

LOWSIDE WINDOW: a window frequently found towards the west in the S. wall of the chancel, and much more

rarely in the N. wall, which begins lower than the other windows and is commonly transomed. Theories about its purpose have included that it was intended to enable lepers or others not permitted to enter the church, to partake in the Eucharist (hence it was sometimes called a leper’s window), or that it was to allow the ringing of the Sanctus bell to be heard outside, but, in fact, the position of some lowside windows seems to make either of these functions unlikely.

LUCARNE: a vertical window projecting from the sloping side of a spire.

MEDALLION: a round, oval or rectangular plague containing a carving or painting.

MERLONS: the up-steps in battlements.

MISERICORD: a shelf-like projection from the underside of a hinged choir stall seat which, when the seat is

turned up, will support the chorister in long periods of standing.

MOUCHETTE: a curved, lance-shaped motif found in window traceries in Decorated style.

MOULDING: an ornamental band around an arch, doorway or window.

MULLION: a vertical stone bar dividing a window into lights.

MUNTIN: an intermediate vertical timber in a door or section of panelling (cf. STILE).

NAILHEAD: a masonry repeating ornament, characteristic of late Norman work and the Early English

style, looking like a depressed pyramid.

NARTHEX: an enclosed anteroom in front of a building’s main entrance and usually at its western end.

NAVE: the main body of a church, in which the congregation sits.

NICHE: a recess, often canopied and designed to hold a statue.

“NOLI ME TANGERE”: a representation of Christ telling Mary of Magdala not to touch Him when He

appears to her after the Resurrection (John 20, v.17).

NOOK-SHAFT: a shaft set in the angle of a wall or architectural feature.

NORMAN: in architecture, the period and largely coinciding style of building, dating from the Norman

Conquest in 1066 to the advent of the pointed arch c.1200.

OCTPARTITE: a vault in which each bay is divided into eight by two diagonal and two transverse ribs.

OCULUS: the central opening at the head of a traceried window, generally formed between mullions or

supermullions to either side (cf. EYELET).

ŒIL-DE-BŒUF: a small circular or oval window.

OGEE ARCH: an arch especially characteristic of the Decorated style from c.1315 onwards, formed of two

pairs of arcs, the lower, concave, and the upper, convex.

OPEN PEDIMENT: a pediment in which the portion around the apex is omitted.

ORDERS: (i) as used of the sides of a doorway or window or of the underside of an arch, steps succeeding

one another in recession towards the opening; (ii) as used in classical architecture, any of the five

traditionally-established designs for a column, three of which are of Greek derivation, namely the DORIC,

IONIC and CORINTHIAN, and two of which are of Roman derivation, namely the TUSCAN and

COMPOSITE.

PANELLED TRACERY: an uncommon form of Perpendicular tracery in which the mullions continue to the

window head but there are no supermullions rising from the tops of the archlets between (cf. ALTERNATE

TRACERY and SUPERMULLIONED TRACERY).

PANTILE: a tile of S-shaped cross-section.

PALLADIAN WINDOW: used here to describe a window with a central round-headed light and a narrower

square-headed light at each side.

PARAPET: a low protective wall around any place where there is a drop.

PARGETING: ornamental plasterwork cladding.

PEDIMENT: a low-pitched, ornamental gable, encountered in eighteenth century work in particular and

used above a doorway or window.

PENDANT: a elongated boss.

PERPENDICULAR: depending on context, a term used to describe either the architectural period from

c.1349 (the year of the Black Death) to c. 1534 (the year of the Break with Rome), or alternatively, the style

that was then prevalent but which in some places extended beyond, characterized, above all, by vertical

lines in window tracery.

PIER: a piece of strong, free-standing masonry, used to support an arch or other load.

PILASTER: a rectangular column projecting from a wall which in classical architecture also conforms in

design on one of the five orders.

PINNACLE: an ornamental construction used to crown the corners of a tower or ends of a gable, or to

terminate a buttress.

PISCINA: a recess, usually in the south wall of a chancel, provided with a scooped-out basin and drain, in

which the Communion vessels may be washed.

PLATE TRACERY: early thirteenth century Gothic tracery, preceding bar tracery and part of the Early

English style, in which the lights are separated by flat pieces of stonework.

POMMÉE CROSS: a cross with equal length arms that end in circles.

POPPYHEAD: an ornamental finial on a bench-end, often carved as an animal, figure or foliage.

PORTICUS: a north or south projection at the junction of the nave and chancel in a Saxon church, which

differs from a transept in being entirely closed off from the rest of the building. (Not to be confused with a

PORTICO.)

PRIEST’S DOORWAY: a doorway in the north or south wall of a chancel.

PRINCIPAL RAFTER: a main rafter, of larger than average scantling.

PSEUDO-CRUCIFORM: a church with transepts, rendering it cross-shaped in plan, but which lacks a central

tower. (It may or may not have a tower to the west or elsewhere.) (Cf. CRUCIFORM).

PURLIN: a wooden roofing beam running parallel to the wall plate and the ridge beam, and commonly a

third, a half, or two thirds of the way up the slope of the roof.

PUTTO (pl. PUTTI): a small naked boy, often featuring in seventeenth and eighteenth century monuments,

and commonly winged and holding one side of a drape or an achievement above the main sculpted figure.

QUADRIPARTITE VAULT: a vault in which each bay is crossed by diagonal ribs only.

QUATREFOIL: divided into four foils.

QUEEN-POSTS: a pair of major roof struts, rising symmetrically from a tie beam to the junctions between a

collar beam, a pair of purlins and a pair of principal rafters.

QUOINS: blocks of masonry at the corners of a building.

RAFTER: a wall timber sloping from the wall plate to the ridge.

RAIL: a horizontal timber in a doorway or piece of furniture.

REEDING: a decoration formed of parallel convex mouldings (cf. FLUTING).

RELIEVING ARCH: an arch above a lintel, from which it takes the strain of the weight of the wall.

RENAISSANCE: a term sometimes used in a loose sense to describe any building erected during the long

period from the sixteenth century to the early nineteenth, the style of which was influenced in one way or

another by a renewed interest in classical ideas emanating principally from Italy.

REREDOS: a painted, carved or sculptured screen, above and behind an altar.

RESPOND: a half-pier attached to a wall.

RETABLE: a picture or piece of carving behind an altar.

RETICULATED TRACERY: a form of window tracery, characteristic of the Decorated style, developed

through the addition of ogee curves to the lights in intersecting tracery and

resulting in window heads filled with tiers of quatrefoils.

RETICULATION UNIT: a term applied especially to the quatrefoils found in the heads of windows with

reticulated tracery, but also to the whole range of shapes encountered in other window traceries, including

the straightened forms of the Perpendicular style.

RETURN STALLS: a term used in these notes to refer to east-facing choir stalls backing on to the dado of the

rood screen.

REVEAL: the inside surface of a doorway or window.

RIBS: the stone bands which support or decorate a vault.

RIDGE BEAM: a beam running along the top of a ridged roof.

RINGERIKE STYLE: a Viking style of carving characterised by animals with long curling tendrils.

ROLL MOULDING: a moulding of simple convex cross-section.

ROMAN ORDER: see COMPOSITE ORDER.

ROMANESQUE: the overriding, composite architectural style, prevailing from the early seventh century to

c. 1200, characterized by the use of the round arch and massive construction and encompassing the

successive SAXON and NORMAN styles (cf. GOTHIC).

ROOD: a cross.

ROOD LOFT: a gallery supported on a rood screen.

ROOD SCREEN: a screen between nave and chancel, that carries (or carried) a rood.

ROOD STAIR: a small. spiral staircase, housed either in a turret or in the nave or chancel wall, giving

access to a rood loft.

ROSE WINDOW: a circular window formed of a main, central light, with smaller lights arranged around.

RUBBLE: uncut stone.

SACRISTY: a room attached to a church, in which the Communion vessels are kept.

SADDLEBACK ROOF: a tower roof formed of an ordinary roof gable.

SANCTUARY: the part of the church immediately around the altar (mostly - but not invariably - the

easternmost part of the chancel).

SANCTUS BELL WINDOW: an opening looking through the E. wall of a W. tower into the main body of the

church, to enable someone sitting in the ringing chamber and responsible for ringing the Sanctus bell, to

follow the service.

SAXON: in architecture, the period and largely coinciding style of building, dating from the early seventh

century to the Norman Conquest in 1066.

SCARFING: the joining of relatively short timbers together to form one continuous length.

SCALLOPED CAPITAL: a style of capital characteristic of the Norman style, developed from the cushion

capital by carving the four sides into scallops.

SCISSOR BRACES: crossed braces.

SECOND POINTED STYLE: another name for the Decorated style but used in these notes to refer

especially to nineteenth century work using similar forms.

SEDILE: one of the individual bays forming a SEDILIA or, unusually, a sedilia formed of just bay.

SEDILIA: (functioning as singular) a succession of recesses, usually in the south wall of a chancel, designed

to provide seats for the clergy.

SEGMENTAL ARCH: an arch formed of a segment of a circle the centre of which is below the springing line.

SEGMENTAL-POINTED ARCH: an arch formed of two segments of a circle, both with centres below the

springing line.

SET-BACK BUTTRESSES: a pair of buttresses similar to angle buttresses, but which are set back slightly

from the corner of the building against which they are built.

SET-OFFS: inclined, projecting surfaces, generally at fixed intervals up the face of a buttress, designed to

throw rainwater away from the walls but also marking the stages in the progressive thickening of the

buttress with decreasing height so as to provide the necessary, increasing counter-thrust to combat the

tendency of the walls to be pushed outwards by the weight of the roof above.

SEXFOIL: divided into six foils.

SEXPARTITE: a vault in which each bay is divided into six by two diagonal ribs and one transverse rib.

SHAFT: a colonnette or one of the members making up a compound pier.

SHAFT-RING: an ornamental stone (or occasionally wooden) ring through which a shaft passes.

SOFFIT: the under-surface of any architectural feature.

SOLE PIECES: short horizontal timbers in roof construction, joining the base of the rafters to the wall

plates.

SOMERSET TRACERY: a stone lattice peculiar to Somerset, formed of open quatrefoils sometimes large enough to enclose

pieced lozenges or similar shapes, employed in high class work as a substitute for wooden louvre boards in bell-openings and

other windows in church towers.

SPANDRELS: the triangular areas above an arch, between the arch itself, a horizontal line drawn across its apex, and vertical lines drawn from the springing points.

SPIRE: a tall, tapering structure crowning a roof or tower.

SPLAYS: sloping reveals, found especially at the sides of a narrow windows, designed to admit the maximum

amount of light.

SPLIT “Y”: the shape formed by a mullion or supermullion that splits just below a window head, creating

space for an eyelet.

SPRINGING, SPRINGING LEVEL or SPRINGING LINE: the level of the springing points of an arch or

vault.

SPRINGING POINT: a point at which an arch or vault rises from its support.

SPUR TIE: in timber-framed construction, a short timber connecting a cruck blade or an arched brace to a

wall plate.

SQUASH TRACERY: tracery beneath a four-centred arch which is entirely above the springing level (cf.

. DROP TRACERY).

SQUINT: an opening cut through an interior wall to allow a view of an altar from a place where it would not

otherwise be visible.

STEEPLE: the complete tower of a church, complete with its spire, lantern, etc., used here chiefly to refer to

those of wooden construction.

STEPPED BATTLEMENTS: tall battlements with large, stepped indentations.

STIFF LEAF: a characteristic masonry ornament in the form of a stylized leaf, found on capitals in the Early

English style.

STILE: the vertical timber at either side of a door, window frame, or section of panelling (cf. MUNTIN).

STILTED: a term used to describe an arch with impost mouldings below the springing level.

STOPPED CHAMFER: a chamfer extending only part of the way along an edge.

STRAPWORK: a sixteenth and seventeenth century form of decorative patterning, used especially in

carpentry, resembling interwoven strips of cut leather.

STRING COURSE: a projecting masonry band running horizontally along a wall.

STRONG MULLION: a term used in these notes in the description of certain forms of supermullioned

tracery, to refer to mullions of greater cross-section than the supermullions, which continue undiminished

above the springing.

STRUT: a vertical roof beam running from a tie beam or hammerbeam to a principal rafter.

SUBARCUATION: subordinate arches beneath the main arch in a window, characteristic of late

Perpendicular work, linking the lights in groups.

SUBLIGHT: an individual opening in a traceried window, above the main lights.

SUBRETICULATION: tracery in which the main reticulation units contain secondary tracery.

SUNK QUADRANT: a moulding with the cross-section of a recessed quarter-circle.

SUPERMULLION: a mullion rising from the top of an archlet.

SUPERMULLIONED TRACERY: one of the main divisions of Perpendicular tracery, in which the mullions

continue to the window head and supermullions rise from the tops of the archlets between (cf. ALTERNATE

TRACERY and PANELLED TRACERY).

SUPERTRANSOM: a transom connecting mullions or supermullions above the springing (cf. TRANSOM).

TABERNACLE WORK: elaborate carving on canopies, niches, etc.

TESTER: a sounding board sometimes found above a pulpit or reader’s desk.

THIRD POINTED STYLE: another name for the Perpendicular style but used in these notes to refer

especially to nineteenth century work using similar forms.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY: in architecture, the period largely coinciding with the Early English style.

THROUGH-RETICULATION: reticulation units intersecting subarcuation.

TIE BEAM: a major roof beam which crosses a roof transversely to join the two wall plates.

TRACERY: the masonry forming the lights and sub-lights of a Gothic window.

TRANSEPT: the north or south arm of a cruciform church.

TRANSOM: a horizontal stone bar connecting the mullions of a window below the springing (cf. SUPERTRANSOM).

TRANSITIONAL: the period of change from one architectural style to another, but as used with a capital

“T”, especially the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic, c. 1200.

TREFOIL: divided into three foils.

TRIFORIUM: a wall passage in a greater church or cathedral, coming between an arcade below and the

clerestory above and open through arches to the building's nave, chancel or transepts.. Not visible outside,

its usual function is to fill the vertical space corresponding with the fall of a lean-to aisle roof, which would

otherwise create too great a discontinuity in the internal elevation.

TRUMEAU: a central vertical mullion supporting a tympanum above an arch or doorway, effectively

dividing the arch or doorway into two.

TIERCERON: in a vault, a secondary rib which links the central boss or a springing point to a principal rib.

TUDOR FLOWER: a square flower ornament typical of the Tudor period.

TURRET: a small tower, often containing a spiral stair.

TUSCAN ORDER: a severely plain form of the classical column consisting as usual of a base, shaft, capital

and entablature, but entirely without ornament except for the customary fillets.

TWO-CENTRED ARCH: an arch formed of a single pair of concave arcs (cf. FOUR-CENTRED ARCH).

TYMPANUM: the semicircular space between a lintel and its relieving arch.

UNDERCROFT: a vaulted room, either underground or with an upper storey.

VAULT: an arched or domed, ceiling or roof.

VENETIAN WINDOW: another term for PALLADIAN WINDOW.

VESTRY: a room attached to a church, in which vestments are kept.

VOLUTE: a projecting moulding like a scroll, most often found on a capital.

VOUSSOIR: one of the wedge-shaped stones of which an arch is constructed.

WAGON ROOF: a roof constructed of closely set rafters, each pair being joined by a collar beam and a

pair of arched braces.

WALL PLATE: the lowest, horizontal roof beam, which lies on top of the wall, parallel with the ridge beam.

WALL POST: a vertical post, attached to a wall and supported on a corbel, which, in turn, supports a roof

beam.

WATER LEAF: a characteristic masonry ornament in the form of a very broad, upright leaf, found on

capitals of “Transitional” date (see above).

WAVE MOULDING: a moulding composed of concave and convex elements.

WEATHERBOARDING: overlapping boards fixed (usually horizontally) on the external walls of timber-

framed buildings.

WIND BRACES: diagonal or curved braces designed to strengthen a roof longitudinally by connecting the

side purlins to the principal rafters.

Y-TRACERY: a form of window tracery, characteristic of Early English work, typified by a central mullion

branching at the springing level into a “Y”.