stirling-1963-vol-1/05_160

Transcription

No. 130 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 130
each side being finished above the cornice in a gablet
reaching fully half-way up the spire.
Internally, the ground floor, which is 18 ft. 3 in. square,
is ceiled with a tierceron vault with plain double-
chamfered ribs springing from a discontinuous impost.
The courses of the vault-webs are set parallel to the
ridges in the French manner. The diagonal and ridge
ribs end on a circular bell-hole, 3 ft. 8 in. in diameter,
and the tiercerons, except on the W., end in a small floral
boss at their intersection with the ridge ribs. In the E.
half there are three smallish openings through the webs
of the vault, presumably for the passage of bell-ropes.
The walls of this floor are 6 ft. 6 in. in thickness and
Mackison infers, and shows in his section, that this
dimension actually represents a build-up of two thick-
nesses, an outer original wall and an inner skin or casing,
2 ft. thick and faced with ashlar, erected at a subsequent
period to carry the vault. ¹ There is now, however, no
visible evidence to support this idea, and in fact every-
thing points strongly to the homogeneity of the structure.
For example, no race-bond can be seen between the
supposed casing and the original walling in door- and
window-embrasures, where one might have been
expected, nor do the original courses in the jambs appear
to have been disturbed by a later insertion of bond-
stones; while similar masons' marks in the embrasures
and on the inside wall-faces strongly suggest that these
two parts are contemporary. The shouldered arch of the
E. door, constructed in the supposed casing, appears to
be original, and this type of arch is found throughout
the tower in the doorways leading to and from the stair
and also, as already mentioned, on some of the rear
openings of the staircase windows. This fact enhances
the probability that all the walling and the arches are of
one period; and it would also follow that the vaulting was
contemporary, as in fact it appears to be, and that the
wall on the ground floor was purposely made very solid
to give support and withstand thrust.
The entrance to the turret-stair, which is of newel
type and measures 6 ft. 4 in. in diameter, runs, as a short
passageway under a shouldered arch, obliquely through
the NE. corner of the ground-floor room, to end in a
small lobby at the stair-foot. Access to the upper floors
is gained through small dog-legged lobbies opening
off the staircase, which continues to the parapet-walk
through the cap-house. This latter finishes in a vault
with chamfered ribs springing on the one hand from the
newel and on the other from the bell-shaped capitals of
shafts which quickly die into the wall.
The first floor contains a room averaging 22 ft. square
within walls reduced to 4 ft. 4 in. in thickness. It is
entered from the stair-well by a shouldered arch, and the
opening is stepped down to a small lobby with a giblet-
checked inner doorway. What is now a recess with a
segmental head in the S. wall at the SW. corner was
formerly an inserted doorway, now built up without any
trace appearing on the outside. It is shown by Mackison
on a drawing of the S. elevation of the tower, and he
remarks, "a door had been broken through the wall on
the level of the first floor, and above it are marks of a roof
[actually a horizontal raggle] having been let into the
tower wall. I consider, therefore, that there has been a
covered platform passage between the tower and the
restored church at this place." ² His W. elevation likewise
shows a later window broken through between the
string-courses above the N. arcaded window, but of this
there is no trace either inside or outside in the restored
ashlar-faced walling. It is also recorded that an inserted
fireplace in the S. wall was removed during the restoration
and the flue built up. The existing floor of the room above
is a renewal, supported on corbels, those on the N. and S.
sides being the larger and wrought with a double fillet
and ovolo in depth and those on the E. and W. only with
a single fillet and ovolo. Just below the springing-level
of the windows, at a height of 11 ft. 6 in. from the floor,
there is evidence either of filled-up beam-holes or of the
remains of corbels cut flush with the wall-faces; four of
these can be seen on both the E. and the W. wall, with
traces of a single one of each of the other two walls. At
some time, whether originally or not, the beams in this
position must have carried an intermediate floor, as
Mackison records that another fireplace, set at this level,
was removed and the flue built up.
The entrance to the second-floor room also opens
under a shouldered arch into a lobby; the inner door of
this is lintelled and shows a small concave chamfer on
the arrises. The room is similar in dimensions to the one
below, and again there is evidence of an intermediate
framed floor or platform in the presence of beam-holes,
now built-up flush and measuring 2 ft. in height by 1 ft.
in width. These are spaced three on each side, two near
the corners and one in the middle, and their tops are at
a level of 10 ft. 6 in. above the existing floor. The large
size of the holes implies a substantial framework of stout
beams no doubt designed with extra strength to carry
the wight of the bells. The door to this chamber is
1 ft. 8 in. higher than the beam-holes; it is lintelled and
chamfered on the arrises and is situated directly over
the one on the floor below.

CARVED STONES, ETC., PRESERVED IN THE TOWER

Ground Floor. The earliest relic in the ground-floor
room of the tower is a coped grave-cover. This stone was
noticed during the Commission's survey of the site in
1954, at which time it formed part of the base-course of
the central buttress of the E. wall of the S. transept. It is
not mentioned in the reports of the 1864 excavations, and
it is uncertain whether it was set in the buttress during a
reconstruction of the transept in late mediaeval times or
at some much more recent period. Unfortunately it is no
longer in situ, having been removed to the tower for
preservation in 1955. The stone, which was broken into
two pieces some time before 1954, is probably of 13th-
century date; it is 5 ft. 7 in. long, and its breadth and
height are respectively 1 ft. 9 in. and 1 ft. 2 in at the
head and 1 ft. 6 in. and 11 in. at the foot. The flat strip
along the top is 5 1/2 in. wide. Each side is treated as a whole

1 Op. cit., 115 f. and pl. 5.
2 Ibid., 116 f. and pl. 4.

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