In situ externally on the median pilaster of the east face of the tower, just below the belfry windows

First published in Lynham 1886

St Mary

Badly eroded

It is separated from the pilaster by a narrow roll moulding along its lower edge. It is heavily damaged, but to each side of the capital a half-round, inward-facing volute emerges from the lower edge. The stem slopes back to touch the wall where it is tightly scrolled around a domed berry bunch.

Although very heavily damaged, the capital appears to have had a volute form, paralleled on Sompting nos. 18 and 20. Such volute capitals, like the upright leaf capitals on the tower arch, represent the debasement of Classical composite or Corinthian forms, with the complete suppression of one of the zones of decoration. On the tower arch it is the volutes which are displaced to form impost-like strips flanking the capitals; they are completely suppressed on Sompting no. 19. On this piece it is the zone of upright leaves which is lost. This type of debasement is paralleled in Lincolnshire where, at Bracebridge and Glentworth, there are similar volute capitals with the zone of upright leaves suppressed (Brown 1925, fig. 192, VII, XVI).

Eleventh century

Lynham 1886, 304; André 1898, 12; Page 1907, 364; Jessep 1914, 37; Brown 1925, 201; Nairn and Pevsner 1965, 330; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 558; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 51; Gem 1983, 123; Tweddle 1986b, i, 62 - 3, 174 - 5, ii, 476, iii, pl. 93a; Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 115 - 16, fig. 9