Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Sompting 15, Sussex Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
In situ externally between the ground and first floor of the tower
Evidence for Discovery
First recorded by Buckler in 1825 (BL Add. MS 36432, item 1252); first published in Rickman
Church Dedication
St Mary
Present Condition
Broken in places; heavily weathered
Description
It is of fundamentally square section, but has been modified to leave a series of raised rectangular fields, alternately above and below the mid-line of the string-course. Each touches its neighbours and is divided into two equal, vertical facets which slope inwards towards the vertical axis of the field. The recessed fields are similarly facetted, the facets sloping up towards the vertical axis.
Discussion
The string-course probably belongs with the construction of the upper stages of the tower in the mid to late eleventh century (Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 114–15). Gem has interpreted the decoration of the string-course as an upright leaf motif. This is possible, but it seems to have more in common with geometrical ornament (Gem 1983, 123).
Date
Eleventh century
References
Rickman 1848, xxix, fig. on xxix; Allen 1889, 197; Page 1907, 364; Tavenor-Perry 1909, 60; Crouch 1910, pls. 37 - 8; Jessep 1914, 37; Brown 1925, 201; Fisher 1962, 276 - 7; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 560 - 1, fig. 273; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 51; Fisher 1969, 177; Fisher 1970, 175; Gem 1973, ii, 492; Gem 1983, 123; Tweddle 1986b, i, 71 - 2, 173, ii, 473 - 4, iii, pl. 91a; Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 114 - 15, figs. 1 - 3
D.T.
Endnotes

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