This church still stands, and bears indubitable proofs of its early date. The windows are divided by balusters, and have other features peculiar to the period.
A convent existed at Repton, in Derbyshire, in the seventh century, and was in the year 875 destroyed by the Danes. The church was afterwards rebuilt, and such portions as were not destroyed were built into the new erection, and they may still be distinguished by the peculiarities of their style. The original crypt under the church still remains in a tolerably perfect state, and is a very remarkable specimen of the style.
There are also curious crypts of this date still remaining under the Cathedral of Ripon and at Hexham. The latter is particularly interesting, from its having been constructed of materials taken from the Roman Wall which passes within a short distance of the place, and Roman inscribed slabs have been used in forming its roof.
In the Anglo-Saxon MSS. in the British Museum, the library of Salisbury Cathedral, and particularly the Paraphrase of Cæmdmon, in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, buildings of stone are distinctly shown in the illuminations, and these buildings, moreover, exhibit "the long and short work" and other distinctive features of the existing remains. This, therefore, may be taken as strong and conclusive evidence that these buildings are of Saxon origin.
The characteristics of this style are as follow:—
Towers.—These are without buttresses, generally of the same dimensions from the foundation to the top, but sometimes diminishing by stages. They are generally built of rubble, the stones being very irregular in size, with quoins
Tower of Sompting Church, Sussex.
at the angles, which are formed of long stones set perpendicularly, and shorter ones laid horizontally alternately with them. (This is termed "long and short work.") They are sometimes divided into stages, and the surface intersected by upright projecting ribs of stone, as if the builder had before him for a model a tower constructed of timber and plaster, and that he had endeavoured to imitate this in stone. The finest example which we have of this kind of ornament is the tower of Earl's Barton Church, Northamptonshire; other examples also occur at Barton-on-Humber, and at Barnack.
Windlow of Deerhurst Church, Gloucester.
Window of Jarrow Church, Durham.
Doorway of Barnack Church, Northamptonshire.
These towers seem always to have been coated with plaster between the ribs of stone, and this gives them still more a timber-like appearance.
Some towers have not this ornament, and are quite plain. The kind of masonry called "herringbone" is frequently used, and Roman bricks taken from the ruins of earlier buildings are of frequent occurrence.
