In situ supporting soffit roll of chancel arch

First recorded in Bloxham 1882

St Botolph

Unknown

The chancel arch is of fundamentally square section with a half-round soffit roll supported by corbels. Each corbel takes the form of an inverted, halved, convex-sided cone. On the north corbel, from the undecorated base develops a row of long half-round stems each carrying a narrow convex-sided leaf. Each leaf touches its neighbours and has a deep, narrow median hollow. The tips of the leaves are cut off by a broad raised band around the upper edge of the corbel. This is decorated with a median band of deep triangular nicks, with their apices pointing downwards. The decoration is heavily damaged where the corbel abuts the wall. On the south side there is a slight roll moulding around the upper edge of the corbel. Below this is a band of deep triangular nicks with their bases on the moulding and their apices pointing down. The lower edge of this band is delimited by an irregular incised line. Below this are three interlocking zones of narrow, convex-sided nicks, each zone in slightly higher relief than the one above. The decoration is obliterated where the corbel abuts the wall.

The nature of the damage to the jambs of the arch, and the disposition of the ornament on the corbels, away from the lower half, suggests that there were originally soffit shafts and that the corbels were originally capitals.

Eleventh century

Bloxham 1882, i, 63; Allen 1889, 198; Jessep 1914, 48-9; Godfrey 1930 - 1, 218; Nairn and Pevsner 1965, 113; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, i, 85; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 49; Fisher 1970, 66; Gem 1973, ii, 496; Tweddle 1986b, i, 59 - 61, 174 - 5, ii, 356 - 7, iii, pl. 25