In situ on the mid-wall shaft of the easternmost belfry window on the north face of the tower

First published in Rickman 1848

St Mary

Broken and worn; partially restored with new stone

It is of circular plan below, but of narrow rectangular plan above. The east and west faces rise vertically, but the north and south faces expand before being cut off vertically in the same plane as the interior and exterior walls. The capital is separated from the shaft by a narrow roll moulding along its lower edge. From this, on the east and west faces, emerges a pair of outward-leaning, half-round stems terminating in tight scrolls in the upper, outer corners of the face. In the angle between them is a second similar pair of stems.

It seems clear that the eastern half of this capital is a later replacement. Aldsworth and Harris have suggested that the tower at Sompting was originally crowned with shingled gables and a helm roof, and that only later were masonry gables substituted, although probably not very much later (Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 124–5, fig. 15). This would place the two capitals Sompting, Sussex (St Mary) nos. 20–1 very late in the eleventh century. This is unsatisfactory as the capitals are decorated in what appears to be a derived version of Winchester-style acanthus, or even the Scandinavian Ringerike style. In either case a date towards the middle of the eleventh century would fit these capitals better. For further discussion see Chap. VII.

Eleventh century

Rickman 1848, fig. on xxvii; Crouch 1910, pl. 39; Page 1907, fig. on 363; Brown 1925, fig. 26.VI; Clapham 1930, 135; Clapham 1935a, 405 - 7; Nairn and Pevsner 1965, 330; Taylor and Taylor 1965 - 78, ii, 558, fig. 273; Taylor and Taylor 1966, 51; Fisher 1970, 179 - 80; Gem 1973, ii, 493, 495; Gem 1983, 125, 128; Tweddle 1986b, i, 65, 174, ii, 476 - 7, iii, pl. 93b; Aldsworth and Harris 1988, 117, fig. 11a