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

First published in Rickman 1848

St Mary

Complete but worn

It is separated from the pilaster by a narrow roll moulding along its lower edge. It is decorated with two superimposed zones of narrow upright leaves with out-turned clubbed ends. The capital supports a narrow impost of rectangular section sculptured in one piece with it.

This capital is very similar in form to those of the soffit shafts of the chancel arch. Like them and Sompting nos. 16, 17 and 19, it represents a debasement of the Classical composite or Corinthian capital. In this case the zone of upright leaves which is preserved, with nos. 16, 17 and 19 it is the volutes. For further discussion see Sompting nos. 14a–b.

Eleventh century

Rickman 1848, fig. on xxviii; Lynham 1886, 304; André 1898, 12; Page 1907, 364, fig. on 363; Crouch 1910, pl. 38; Jessep 1914, 37; Brown 1925, 201; Fisher 1962, 377, fig. 43; Nairn and Pevsner 1965, 330; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 558, fig. 273; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 51; Fisher 1970, 176, fig. 12; Gem 1983, 123, fig. 3; Tweddle 1986b, i, 59 - 61, 174 - 5, ii, 475, iii, pl. 92b; Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 115 - 16, fig. 9