with timber screenwork. All the mouldings, the high altar and the south and east walls were whitewashed, with some parts of the wash being nearly an eighth of an inch thick. This was probably the first part of the abbey to be built, although there is a theory that what we now have is a rebuild dating from about 50 years after the foundation, so that what you see now is not the original; this is just a theory, but it might explain the later date of the existing east window.
In about 1500, Abbot Richard de Nottingham re-roofed the chancel, raising the side walls and altering the clerestory, one of the south window jambs of which was still visible in Victorian times but had fallen by 1941. There were probably five pairs of square-headed closely bunched Perpendicular windows. Abbot Richard removed most of the original dogtooth ornament, leaving a bit at each side, and altered the pitch of the roof from an acute to a very obtuse angle.
Still discernible in the grass are choir stall bases 15 inches thick and three feet apart. There were 12 stalls on each side, with three each side of the entrance, occupying the two westernmost bays. There were also seats for the abbot, prior, precentor and succentor. The stalls were new in 1490 and had a linenfold pattern with foliage and curious finials (one was an allegory of heads, one a youth's, one an old man's, and one a skull's, all in cowls). These are now in Radbourn church (see Chapter 16).
At the west end of the chancel stood the rood screen, with a loft above it. This is recorded in 1490 as being surmounted by the images of Saints Mary and John and a crucifix. It was an elaborate screen, double, with its sections five feet apart and a central doorway four foot six inches wide, leaving ten feet of screen each side; eight panels of its base are still to be found in Radbourn church (see Chapter 16). The chancel also sported two organs and a clock. When it was excavated, it was found that the chancel’s ttokens, a key, the corner clasps and a boss from a book-cover, a large brass lamp ring, an old razor, and various pieces of ornamental pottery.
Passing through the rood screen takes us into the crossing, where the short arm of the cross of the cruciform church meets the long arms. This was approximately 31 feet square and supported by four massive pillars, the bases of which can still be seen. The bases are dissimilar: the south west one and the north west one are similar to one another and Decorated; beneath the north east base is a large square chamfered base of an earlier date, and the south east one was designed to look like this north east one and is Early English. The north east pillar base is heavily decayed, but traces of a spiral staircase which led to the rood loft and belfry may be made out; it is thought that the staircase dates back to the 13th century.