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Object type: Fenestella / double window
Measurements: H. 49.5 cm (21.5 in); W. 37 < 46 cm (14.5 < 18 in); D. 11 < 12 cm (4.25 < 4.5 in); W. of aperture 7.5 < 9 cm (3 < 3.5 in)
Stone type: Yellowish grey (5Y 7/2), medium-grained, matrix-supported oolite with ooliths weathering out to give 'aero-chocolate' texture. Ooliths 0.3 to 0.6 mm diameter. Sparse platy shell fragments up to 2 mm across. All five pieces of the fenestella are essentially the same. Bath stone, Chalfield Oolite Formation, Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Pls. 186-7
Corpus volume reference: Vol 7 p. 143
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The piece when found was cracked into five pieces, but is formed from a single block of stone which has then been cut into two apertures divided by a column. The front surface of the stone has been keyed for paint or whitewash, some vestiges of which survive.
A (front): The heads of the arches are very precisely scooped out and the sides and sills of each opening are chamfered back; the central column is rounded with prominent narrow collar, and similar collars form the heads of the arches at the sides.
C (back): The heads and sills are similarly formed but the column is less rounded and the collars are more vestigial.
The abbey authorities have labelled this a fenestella, but whether for a reliquary shrine or as an internal window to something like a crypt is not clear. Its unworn state and slender depth indicate that it could hardly have been an outdoor window, and its rarity of form renders it of great interest. Such a simple form is not easy to date; a column capped by a simple roll collar and no impost or capital is hardly diagnostic, but it could belong to the later Saxon period.
