Ade hic de Portu solis benedicat ab ortu,
Gens cruce signata, per quern sic sum renovata.
Fratres orate, prece vestra sanctificate
Templi factores, seniores et juniores.
Wilfrid fundavit, bonus Adam sic renovavit[1].
Wilfrid, archbishop of York, driven from his see by Egfrid, the king of Northumbria, according to Bede's narration, visited these parts, and preached the doctrines of Christianity, about A.D. 676. Edilwach, king of Sudsex, had professed Christianity, A.D. 661, when this country, then called the land of the Meanviri, was given to him by Wulphere, king of Mercia. No part of the existing building can be attributed, as Mr. Belcher observed, to this early period: the tower appears to be the oldest portion, it is well built, the lower windows as well as the circular ones in the belfry, are splayed, and the intrados of the west window is supported on two slender shafts, with foliated capitals. The semicircular arch appears here, but the arch between the tower and nave is pointed, corresponding with the side windows, and may have been the work of Adam de Portu, who possessed the lordship of Warnford during the reigns of Henry II., Richard I., and John. (Dugd. Bar., i. 463.) The present nave, Mr. Belcher observed, is about four feet broader than that which was built at the same time as the tower, as may be seen by foundations at the south-east corner of the tower. The side walls have been raised about four feet, probably at the same time when the east window was inserted; and the original roof had, doubtless, a higher pitch than the present one, which is nearly flat, so that when it was lowered, it became necessary to raise the side walls. There is a Norman font, in bad condition ; a double ambry in the north wall of the chancel; and three stalls with miserere seats, now nailed down.
In the north wall of the nave there is an arched recess, which, as Mr. Belcher supposed, indicates the position of the staircase leading to the rood-loft. There is a flat sepulchral slab, of greater width at the head than at the lower extremity, ornamented near the top with bosses and circles in relief. There appears to have been a northern porch and doorway opposite to the southern door, and a basin for holy water at the west door externally. This doorway has a pointed arch, of inferior workmanship.
Mr. Belcher corrected the following trifling errors in the notice of this church, previously given in the Journal:—The tower-stairs are supported by a single post; and the recessed landing is in the south-western angle of the wall. The inscribed stones are not both in the northern wall, one of them being in the southern wall, within the porch. At a short distance eastward of the church are the curious ruins of a structure, vulgarly called
- ↑ "Camden's Britannia, by Bishop Gibson, vol. ii. p. 146, where the following version of the lines is given.
"Good folks, in your devotions ev'ry day,
For Adam Port, who thus repair'd me, pray."
"All you that come here,
Bestow a kind prayer
On the Church builders,
Both youngers and elders.
What pious Wilfrid rais'd,
Good Adam increas'd."
