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Church, and of many matters of antiquarian and archæological interest connected with the parish and neighbourhood of Sefton; and not only quotes, but in many instances reproduces the contents of ancient documents and charters calculated to throw light on the working of the social machinery in by-gone centuries. In matters of more recent date, this volume supplies full information as to the proceedings of a body which styled itself "The ancient and loyal Corporation of Sephton," more commonly known as "The Mock Corpo"ration." The late Rev. Engelbert Horley, M.A., Rector 1871-1883, took a lively interest in the records of the sayings and doings of this association, and, by collecting and editing them as they are now presented in print, has preserved a very life-like picture of a curious phase of social life, and of men and manners as they appeared between the year 1780 and the cessation of the chronicles, if not of the existence, of this jocose and merry-making self-styled corporation, in 1798.

SUCCESSIVE CHURCHES ON THE SITE.

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Whether or no a Norman church formerly stood at Sephton, on any portion of the site of the present building, is a matter only to be inferred from a few traces which seemingly exist. great Norman cathedrals were built much about the dates 1150-1180, and Norman work was followed by Early English before the close of the twelfth century. A certain "Richard, parson of "Sefton," is mentioned in a deed which internal evidence assigns to the year 1204 or thereabouts. It goes without saying that this "parson of Sefton," who seems to have had a taste for litigation, must have had a church in which to officiate; and as his dispute with the monks of S. Mary's, Lancaster, was arranged in the year just named, that building

must have been in existence at Sephton some twenty or thirty years only after the date of the erection of some of our finest examples of Norman architecture. The remains of a Norman doorway at Aughton, and of a Norman window at Ormskirk, render it perfectly possible that a Norman building stood at Sephton also, at an early date. The tradition locally current, that it was founded in IIII, may be dismissed as unauthenticated, and rests probably on a misinterpretation of an I.H.S. carved above the arch of the south porch. It is most improbable that the builders of the sixteenth century porch would place upon their work the merely traditional date of a vanished building.

The Norman church at Sephton has disappeared, but in the angle formed by the junction of the western wall of the porch with the wall of the south aisle, a stone is built into the wall which evidently formed at one time part of a diapered surface, wrought by the hands of a Norman mason. The shape and diagonal tooling of many of the stones built into the east wall of the north aisle seem also to indicate a Norman origin, and another fragment of diaper occurs in the interior, high up in the wall of the south aisle, to the east of the parvise door. Some large blocks of red sandstone in two courses-the lower one squared and tooled, the upper one much injured-are visible at the base of the interior of the tower, beneath its west window. These appear to be anterior to the Decorated work, and are possibly the remains of a stone bench, and are certainly evidence of some description of an early building.

As no trace of Early English work exists in the church, it may be assumed that the Norman church stood through the Early English period, until it was supplanted towards the end of the thirteenth century by a Decorated building, which in its turn

gave place to the work of late fifteenth century masons. The relaying of some flags near the western face of the chancel screen, in the year 1893, disclosed a red sandstone wall of considerable thickness running north and south, at some little depth below the present surface. The similarity of material would seem to point to some connection as regards date and builders between this wall and the courses in the tower. A sandstone floor is also to be found lying at some depth below the oaken flooring of the choir stalls, and presents the appearance of having formed the floor of some early building.

The place of the Norman church was taken by a Decorated building, of which some substantial portions still remain. The tower, and a portion of the north aisle at its western, and more especially at its eastern end, enable us to conjecture what manner of building the whole structure was. It probably occupied much the same site as the existing church, but had not quite the same axis. It had a high-pitched roof, the slope of which is indicated by the weather moulding, visible from the interior on the eastern wall of the tower, and which also shows that the present nave stands rather more to the south than did the earlier one. The spire, where it rises from the tower, had the same turrets at its base as now, but they are shewn in old drawings as simple cones, devoid of the crocketted pinnacles placed upon them by later hands. An examination of the plinth and base mouldings of the tower where they appear in the church at the west end of the south aisle, leads to the conclusion that they were originally carried straight onward to the east, and that the Decorated church had no south aisle; but that its high-pitched roof, starting from the tower, terminated eastward by the nave and chancel gables, resting upon

a south nave and chancel wall. This wall was probably pierced by either arched or square-headed windows, having flowing tracery, and filled with yellow stained and grisaille glass. The north aisle formed a part of the original design, and was erected at the same time as the Decorated nave, and, as it would seem, with stones taken from a preceding Norman building.

But if the Norman church was swept away by the builder of Decorated date, his work in turn fared nearly as badly at the hands of the Perpendicular architect. The carrying of the weather-moulding of the nave roof slightly beyond the northern limit of the tower wall, is an indication that the north aisle had a gabled roof of its own, which is confirmed by the height of its eastern window. Some corbels in the northern wall, above the square-headed window, were evidently intended to carry the roof timbers; but whether they were designed to be simple blocks, or, like the corner one, to have a step-like form, is not so clear, though the latter appears most probable. This north aisle exhibits an architectural declension as its construction is carried westward. It has been repaired with Perpendicular work of an earlier period than that of the nave, consequently, it may be inferred, while the Decorated nave was still standing. Beyond the square-headed window westward, it has apparently undergone successive and intermittent repair, rather than systematic reconstruction. The east window is an interesting example of Decorated work, as is also the squareheaded one; but the latter has undergone some unskilful repair, while the former stands urgently in need of careful restoration. The next window was evidently also square-headed, as probably were all the windows, but the lintel has been removed, and replaced by a fifteenth century arch.

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